Brainteasers are a great way to both stimulate the mind and kill a little bit of time, whether that’s on a bus on the way home or in a queue waiting to enter a busy café. There are three main types of brainteasers, analytical, observational, and mathematical.
Mathematical brainteasers require the user to solve a maths-based question whilst the analytical brainteaser tasks them with solving a riddle or answering a complicated question.
Observational brainteasers, such as the one by Minimum Deposit Casino above, test someone by sticking an anomaly inside the image and asking the user to find it. In this case, the task is to find the controller in under 14 seconds.
The key to solving this and other examples of observational brainteasers is to carefully scan the image from left to right and top to bottom to find the anomaly.
Did you find the controller? No worries if not, its location is circled above showing it was resting on the bookcase.
Brainteasers like this one are great ways to give the mind a little bit of exercise in the same way jogging stimulates the muscles in the legs. By stretching the mind a little we can make it sharper and slightly healthier in the long term, potentially reducing the risk of neurological issues later in life.
This doesn’t mean that brainteasers will stop someone from developing dementia, lifestyle and other factors can have a much bigger impact, but they and other activities could help keep it sharper for longer by contributing to neurological health.
According to a study published last year, participating in activities such as writing letters and using a computer could reduce the risk of dementia. Conducted in Australia it found that people who participated in literacy-related activities were 11 percent less likely to develop the disease over a 10-year period.
In a statement, the team from Monash University, Melbourne, said: “These results suggest that engagement in adult literacy, creative art, and active and passive mental activities may help reduce dementia risk in late life. For older adults, lifestyle enrichment may be particularly important because it could help prevent dementia through modifications to daily routines.”