A Japanese neuroscientist has found that “if you measured the brain activity of someone who was concentrating on a single, complex task — like studying quantum theory — several parts of that person’s brain would light up. But if you asked them to answer a rapid-fire slew of tiny, simple problems — like basic math questions — her or his brain would light up everywhere. Hence the design of [the computer game] Brain Age. It offers you nine different tests, some of which seem incredibly basic — like answering flash-card math questions — and others which are fiendishly tricky.”