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Marianne Favro reporting Researchers have developed a computer program that they say will improve your memory.
Turning back the hands of time requires intense concentration.
These San Jose, California seniors hope when they're done with this brain fitness program, they'll have the memory skills they had ten years ago.
85-year-old Esther Petty is a proud graduate of the eight week course.
Esther Petty, Brain Fitness Program Graduate: "I find that I can recall names a little bit faster than I did beforehand and that's good for me."
For an hour a day, five days a week, participants at Sunrise Assisted Living in San Jose log on and work their way through a series of exercises, including differentiating between different sounds to help rewire the way the brain processes speech.
Fred Marten, Participant: "I think the most challenging part was when you had to identify four sounds."
Posit Science in San Francisco developed the program, based on research by a top UC-San Francisco neuroscientist.
Robbi Peele, PositScience: "It's based on the theory that your brain can in fact change itself at any time in life if provided with the right stimuli in the right order in the right time."
When 86 year old Richard Kleiner finished the course he says his confidence went up.
Richard Kleiner, Brain Fitness Program Graduate: "I could remember a few more names, a few more things, a few more people."
The course is not easy. It's not supposed to be.
Esther Petty, Brain Fitness Program Graduate: "Sometimes it was very frustrating."
You can also do the program at home. It costs about 400 dollars for each user.
Seniors who've tried it say they can now remember what they saw in movies, where they left their keys, what they just read.
They may not be sweating from this workout, but they can feel it's paying off.
In a study of 183 seniors, those who did the brain fitness program for at least eight weeks demonstrated a significant improvement on memory tests compared to those who watched educational D-V-D's.
www.positscience.com For more information on this program.. log on to our website at K-S-L dot com.
