Kotaku Interview with Dr. Kawashima

Filed in archive Interviews on April 11, 2006

Kotaku had the privilege of interviewing Dr. Kawashima, the man who wrote the books that inspired the Brain Training series. You can read the interview below:

Q). How would you explain the concept of mental age to someone who's never heard of it?

A). The mental age is calculated from expected average cognitive functions of specific age of people. For example, if you perform a cohort study of memory function of healthy people, you would find age-related decline of memory function due to normal aging. Also, you could calculate regression line between age and scores of memory function tests that enable you to calculate expected average memory function of specific age of subjects. Then when you refer that regression data, you could know your memory function, that is, your test score, is the same level as average people of some specific age. This is the mental age calculated from memory tests. We combined results of several cognitive tests to calculate the mental age in DS games.

Q). What exactly is happening when people are playing the brain games? (What parts of the brain are being used?)

A). We have used near infra-red spectroscopy during developing these games. And we confirmed that the prefrontal cortex of the bilateral hemispheres is strongly activated during playing each game.

Q). What is it like to see the brain training series take off so much? Did you expect the series to become this popular?

A). Beyond success of these DS games, I have published two brain training books, both of which have sold more than a million. So I know brain training is social trend in Japan. Therefore, shall I say, it's not too incredible.

Q). What sort of concrete improvements can people expect to experience if they exercise mentally with the brain training games?

A). We expect improvements of memory functions, extroversion, and positiveness. It is important to note here that we think DS games are not only for brain training, but also for a tool for communication with family and friends. Four people can play using one software. Basic content of games is so simple that these are games that can be played with children, adults and aged peoples, and the results of games can be compared with all members. We already see many families have started communicating more with DS games in Japan.

Q). Have you seen people playing the DS games in public (on the train, for example)? How did it make you feel?

A). Yes I did, and I felt very bad. Because I know a 3D polygon of my face appears often in the games, and I thought that people may recognize me as the guy in the games.

Q). What do you think about the DS games coming to the US and Europe?

A). It is very interesting to see whether DS games would succeed outside of Japan, since there are too many cultural differences.

Q). Does the Japanese version exercise different parts of the brain from the English language one? Or does it do the same thing?

A). It does the same.

Q). What do you think of the English version? What do you like best about the localization?

A). Well ... I must say excellent, and I love all!