When you first start Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training, you will be asked for your date of birth and to confirm whether you are right or left-handed. Then your current score in the form of a ‘Brain Age’ is determined by a quick test which measures the speed and accuracy with which you perform the exercises.

Once you have confirmed your Brain Age, it’s time to start training your mind to improve your score. Brain Training includes more than a dozen different numerical and verbal exercises which are designed to be played for just a few minutes a day. A built-in calendar tracks your progress and you get a ‘stamp’ for completing each day’s exercises.

Once you have completed a few exercises, you can take the Brain Age test again. If you’ve trained your brain well, your results should improve until you reach the best score: a Brain Age of 20*.

*Note: The Brain Age score has been created to enable you to monitor the progress of your training when using Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training only and for no other purpose.

CALCULATION X 20

Helps train your brain through the high-speed solving of simple sums. The sums appear on the Display Screen. Write the answer on the Touch Screen as quickly as possible. Your total time for solving 20 sums will be recorded.

READING ALOUD

Reading aloud helps stimulate the prefrontal cortex. While reading out loud is the most effective, silently reading to oneself also works. Read the displayed text as quickly as possible. Your time for reading the entire text will be recorded.

LOW TO HIGH

Numbers will appear in the boxes on the Display Screen for only an instant. The same boxes, empty, will then be displayed on the Touch Screen. Touch them in order of the lowest number to the highest.

NUMBER CRUNCHER

The Display Screen features a sentence. Count the number of syllables contained in the sentence and write it on the Touch Screen.

HEAD COUNT

People will go in and out of the house on the Display Screen. Keep track of how many remain in the house at the end and write that number on the Touch Screen.

TRIANGLE MATH

Add or subtract the adjacent numbers at the top of the triangle on the Display Screen according to the symbols between them. Then add or subtract the two resulting numbers to get the answer and write this on the Touch Screen.

TIME LAPSE

On the Touch Screen, write the time difference between the top clock and the bottom clock.

VOICE CALCULATION

Answer simple sums out loud. Your voice is picked up by the Nintendo DS’ built-in microphone.