Check your brain speed!

[Trippy]

http://www.positscience.com/programs/brainspeed.php

Warning: requires IE (for ActiveX) and Shockwave player (dunno why they didn't just use Flash).

The site's currently having issues so you might want to try again later if the page doesn't load.

I scored 46 ms, which given my advancing years I'm happy with. Clearly all those hours listening for footsteps in CS has paid off.

[Trippy]

Here's the news article from news.com about the program while you wait for the site to come back up:

Online test calculates brain speed

Online test calculates brain speed
By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: March 23, 2006, 4:56 PM PST

As some researchers examine brain functions with advanced imaging technology, other scientists are measuring brain speed with the click of a mouse.

San Francisco-based Posit Science unveiled a program in recent weeks that tests how fast a person's brain can process information, based on his or her hearing speed.

"Auditory processing speed is important because much of the information we receive each day is communicated through sound--especially speech," according to Posit Science, which has developed software that promotes brain fitness. "The faster we can take in information accurately, the better we can keep up with, respond to and remember what we hear."

The 10-minute online test, at the company's Web site, measures how fast and accurately the test-taker can detect different sounds, by having the test-taker click on arrows. Once finished, the test-taker will receive a measurement of his or her brain speed, down to the millisecond.

In your 20s, the average speed of auditory processing is 68 milliseconds. That number jumps to an average of 87 milliseconds in your 40s and 106 milliseconds in your 60s.

Focus on brain research has been heightened in recent years with advances in technology that make it possible to determine everything from brain speed to emotional responses to Super Bowl ads. Posit Science, through its founder, neuroscientist and software entrepreneur Mike Merzenich, is concentrating on developing software programs that promote cognitive fitness and reverse the effects of aging.

Recent research findings show its brain fitness software, a computer-based training program, is having positive effects on elderly people. Seniors who participated in an eight-week training study with Posit Science showed improvement in neuron-cognitive function and memory, growing younger on average of auditory memory and attention by 10 years.

Still, the software to improve brain speed and memory isn't cheap. It costs about $500 for one PC. Or people can buy it bundled with a Dell Dimension 1100 computer for $1,000.

[Trippy]

Looks like the site is working again. Here's a graph of times:

[Roac]

I'd really like to see how badly I do before I had my coffee, but lots of chirping sounds comming from my computer at work probably isn't a good thing.

[Wolf]

How did you manage to load it? I've been hitting F5 in 5 minute intervals for the past hour and can't seem to get there :(

[Trippy]

Site's probably being hammered again. I can't get it load right now either.

[Roac]

After several minutes it loaded.  Site's just getting hammered looks like, but it's there.

[Sky]

ActiveX? I guess my brain speed is too fast for that site, I'm on a mac. They say they're working on a mac version. Apparently their brain speed isn't that fast.

 

[Llava]

34 milliseconds.

Right on the mark for top performers of my age (20s).

[WayAbvPar]

58 milliseconds. I think I could do better- I thought the response time was on the clicking, so I was doing that as fast as possible and made some clicking mistakes. I realized later that it was just the interpretation that they were testing.

Still above average for my rapidly advancing age.

[Roac]

28.  Neat.

Edit:  Ran it twice more, wondering how accurate it was.  Came up with 32 and 25, which is a kinda high variance, though small sample.  Got easier the third time too, when I nailed down better how they were playing with the pitch (there are different "up" or "down" sounds being used, not just one for each). 

[Furiously]

Wonder if they will be able to tell if I am running gear....

[Bunk]

hmm, 36

[Llava]

Wait, it doesn't count the time it takes you to click?

I was clicking as fast as I could, thinking it counted both accuracy and speed.  I'll have to do it again when I get back home to see how I do with this new knowledge.