Can an app upsmart our brains?
Sage60 accessed the BrainHQ app and had our members test it out.
BrainHQ is a paid app, but some Canadian public libraries offer it for free.
The brain is our “use it or lose it” organ. It’s three pounds of mostly fat, mixed with water, proteins, carbohydrates and salts. And somewhere within its billions of cranial neurons and glial cells lives us.
We do know our brains shrink in volume as we age. Thankfully there are strategies to keep your brain healthy and even tune it up. Ottawa cognitive neurologist Neil Thomas of the Bruyère Health Research Institute says things such as the research-backed MIND (or Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet can be good for brain health. The diet puts an emphasis on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and extra-virgin olive oil, with moderate fish consumption and limited red meat. It also limits butter and cheese, fried foods and sweets.
“The MIND diet was used in the U.S. Pointer Study,” Thomas says, referring to a 2025 landmark study on protecting cognitive function in older adults. “Both the Mediterranean style and MIND diets have seemed to be the ones that show some benefit for lifestyle changes in health in general.”
Thomas, whose research specializes in geriatric cognitive and behavioural memory, focuses on helping people with mild cognitive impairment (from disease and head injuries) and their caregivers. One of his studies involves a calendar-based training program that was first developed at the Mayo Clinic. It relies upon rote memorization and makes people feel more confident in their daily activities by writing down what they have to do and what they have done each day.
“That’s one out of five components in this multi-component intervention,” Thomas explains about his program. “Individuals go through 10 sessions to learn about the diagnosis, there’s education sessions, there’s support groups for the person with the diagnosis and their care partner. There’s this memory support training system and there are physical activity sessions with yoga.”
Vascular health is crucial for brain health, Thomas explains. Diet and physical exercise are key components. He’s personally seen Parkinson’s patients benefit from engaging in specially designed non-contact kickboxing programs. He’s also involved with a University of Ottawa study on music, play and improvisational movement, and he’s excited by the early results.
“Dynamic brain computer-based cognitive training is one part of that intervention,” Thomas adds.
Mental exercise such as quizzes, puzzles or learning a musical instrument are great for brain health. That’s why there are many online brain fitness programs.
“In terms of what’s out there,” Thomas says, “BrainHQ probably does have the most evidence of benefit.”
No peer-reviewed studies support any of the cognition supplements sold on the internet. Of the online brain training programs, BrainHQ is the only one that promotes peer-reviewed studies on its website.
Sage60 decided to try it out for you.
Neurologist and neuroplasticity researcher Michael Merzenich led the program’s creation.
BrainHQ costs money to use, but is also offered free at some public libraries in Canada. The system’s personal trainer leads you through a series of games to improve various kinds of cognition, beginning with brain speed and attention. Over time, it will introduce memory, followed by intelligence, navigation and people skills games.
Jeff Zimman is a businessman and co-founder of Posit Science, the company that created BrainHQ. Merzenich explained to him that our brains begin slowing down in our late 20s, with milliseconds of our visual perception speed lost. Then, by our mid-40s, things are slowing down enough that we begin responding, “ha” to novel ideas we need a second to process. We lose both speed and accuracy. In our 70s and 80s, we don’t do many new and exciting things so our brains produce less acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that facilitates learning. Its absence is noted in studies of cognitive decline. Zimman says a McGill University study released last October showed that 10 hours of his training could permanently turn the clock back 10 years, increasing acetylcholine.
Zimman says that while the program was invented to focus on aging and has been used by pro athletes like NFL Hall of Famer Tom Brady, “my biggest sector now is U.S. military.”
Sage60 was given memberships to review the program, one taken by this article’s writer, and two others by the first Federal Retirees members who agreed to review it.
Deb Turner, 67, of Richmond, B.C., is a retired member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, her career included serving as a navigator on a C-130 Hercules, working with unmanned aerial vehicles, and finishing as a lieutenant colonel and deputy director of the National Defence Command Centre.
Turner says she agreed to take part in the BrainHQ mission because while friends say she’s still quick, she’s noticed certain memory skills slowing. She also worries that she might inherit the mild dementia her grandmother suffered in old age.
“I’ve often wondered if perhaps I will get something later in life,” Turner says. “But my father, who was her son, is now 93 and he has really no signs of it.”
Turner does lots of puzzles, is an avid reader and remains physically active. She wanted to see if BrainHQ works.
“I found it challenging for sure. And at the end of it, my brain was tired,” she says of the training. She hasn’t noticed any cognitive benefits yet. She also notes there was no euphoric feeling after a workout, like running a half marathon gave her.
Deb Nilsen, 69, of Prince George, B.C., retired nine years ago from the Canada Revenue Agency where she loved working as an auditor in Canada’s Far North. She describes herself as a puzzle fanatic and wanted to try the program for fun.
“I think the brain cognition has gotten a little bit better because I’m starting to get better and better at doing the levels of the stuff that they want you to do,” Nilsen says. She describes the training as fun and says it has improved her jigsaw-puzzle skills.
Turner agrees the exercises can be taxing, and both volunteers plan to continue using it, at least until their free trial ends.
Mick Gzowski is a writer based in Aylmer, Que. He says his scores on BrainHQ improved with time, and he did feel a little sharper in real life, but he hasn’t returned to it since finishing this article.
Sage60, the digital sister of Sage, delivers compelling stories on healthy aging, advocacy and community.
Federal Retirees represents active and retired public servants, Armed Forces, RCMP, judges and their families.