Keeping the D.L. waiting

I used to play the darn thing because I was addicted to it. Sudoku, that is; the number puzzle, a form of which appears in the Times every week in the Diversions section. It appears today on this page.

You could have heard, for example, how I arranged a personal audience with, but then stood up, the Dalai Lama, keeping him waiting while scanning my puzzle for just those few more minutes that would yield the flash of insight I needed to solve it. And give me that brief shot of dopamine or adrenaline or whatever it is from the completion of the task; which would wear off quickly, of course—until the next puzzle was solved

I know that the urge to complete Sudoku puzzles does not quite rank up there with alcohol, drugs, gambling or philandering as serious addictions. But working on your Sudoku is pretty much the antithesis of the ‘living in the moment’ maxim that many philosphers, including the D.L. himself, agree upon. Commit yourself fully to experience the people with whom and the circumstances in which you find yourself right now, they say. And while they don’t come right out and say so, I assume they mean it’s not a good idea to have your Sudoku puzzle on hand in case the conversation at the dinner table flags somewhat.

But then, just as I was about to check in to the Betty Ford clinic to cope with my addiction, along came the brain training wave, that intriguing proposition that your brain is like any other part of your body and needs to be kept active. So all of a sudden, by doing Sudoku I was taking my brain to the gym, not indulging in addictive and inconsiderate behaviour, and I was off the hook. “I’m sorry, Your Holiness, for keeping you waiting, but I wouldn’t want to be a burden to anyone in my old age, now would l? Here, why don’t you work on this higher degree of difficulty one while I finish mine.”

Indeed, a study just published in the Lancet supports the proposition that brain training can be important. Reuters news service reports that “Older people at risk of dementia who follow advice on healthy eating, exercise and brain-training can slow down cognitive decline, particularly in their ability to organize and regulate thought processes. The scientists found that two years of intensive guidance for people aged 60 to 77 led to some striking differences in the brain’s capabilities in so-called executive function and processing.”

So I should just do Sudoku all day long, right? Well, no. First of all, I have to concede they slipped healthy eating and exercise in there. Second, there is apparently a difference between brain training and brain gaming: gaming is just one sort of training, and you must train appropriately to the function you are trying to strengthen. According to an article published in the Huffington Post by Sandra Bond Chapman, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas, there is not enough scientific evidence that playing brain games like Sudoku helps train the brain in its cognitive functioning: all it does is (hopefully) make you a better Sudoku player.

Her advice to those who want to ward off the onset of decline in things that really matter—the cognitive process generally called executive functioning—like decision- making, planning and judgment? “If you like brain games, there is no harm in doing them, but chances are you are better off giving your brain some downtime and gearing up for deeper level thinking. I recommend taking practical steps. For example, eliminate multitasking. Temporarily cutting ties with technology—just for 30 minutes— can also better brain health.”

So taking an afternoon meditation break (or nap, as some used to call it) or even checking my e-mail may actually preserve my cognitive functioning better than Sudoku can. I wish I’d known that years ago.

And where does that leave me with my Sudoku? As an undischarged addict, I guess. “Hello, my name is David, and I am a Sudokuholic. I started out doing simple Sudoku, in which basic deductive reasoning told me the number I proposed to place in a particular square was the only right solution. Then I began craving more difficulty, and sought puzzles that required me to use twostage reasoning, negative inference, grouping, ambiguity and probability theory (guessing). Finally, I had to go to the hardest puzzles, in which reasoning alone wasn’t enough, and I had to use the scientific method (trial and error). I almost lost everything. But thanks to this support group, I will try to live Sudoku free. My name is David and I am a Sudokuholic.”

dsimmonds@wellingtontimes.ca