Brain Workout

Challenging and intriguing puzzles to sharpen your mind, improve your memory, and keep your brain fit.

Marcel Danesi, Ph.D., is a professor of semiotics and anthropology at Victoria College, University of Toronto. His books include The Puzzle Instinct and The Total Brain Workout. See full bio

December 1, 2009

Where is the Missing Dollar?

I have often been asked what makes a puzzle interesting. Is it difficulty level or complexity? I don't think so, although difficulty and complexity do make a puzzle more challenging. The classic puzzles are actually rather uncomplicated in design. Read More

August 17, 2009

The Doublet Puzzle: A Masterpiece from the Pen of Lewis Carroll

Most people probably know Lewis Carroll, the nom de plume of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, as the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Read More

June 19, 2009

The Appeal of Sudoku

In the winter of 2005, I was in my office early in the morning preparing my classes ahead of me when I got an unexpected call from a reporter at the Associated Press who, having read my book The Puzzle Instinct, wanted to gauge my opinion on a new puzzle craze that was spreading thro Read More

April 24, 2009

Puzzles and the Brain

I recently googled relevant psychology, neuroscience, aging, and education websites to get a sense of the kind of research being conducted on the relation between puzzles, and general brain functioning. I found an astronomical number of sites. I then looked up sources that I considered to be scientifically reliable ones. Read More

March 30, 2009

Can you solve these visual thinking puzzles?

Visual thinking is the term used commonly in psychology to refer to the type of thinking that results from perceiving or processing visual stimuli, forms, or patterns. Such thinking is a major function of the right hemisphere of the brain, also known (logically enough) as the "visual hemisphere." Read More

March 16, 2009

Fun with Anagrams

Anagrams are words or phrases made by rearranging the letters of other words or phrases. Their origin goes right back to the dawn of recorded history. Initially, they were perceived as harboring secret or prophetic messages. Read More

March 6, 2009

The Original "Thinking Outside the Box" Puzzle!

Let me first introduce myself and this blog, which is titled Total Brain Workout. I am a professor of anthropology at the University of Toronto, and one of my main areas of cultural research is puzzles. I have also been teaching an undergraduate course on puzzles (their history and cultural meaning) at the University for many years. Read More

Books by Marcel Danesi, Ph.D.

The Total Brain Workout

The Puzzle Instinct: The Meaning of Puzzles in Human Life

Neuroscience Basics

The human brain has been called the most complex object in the known universe, and in many ways it's the final frontier of science. A hundred billion neurons, close to a quadrillion connections between them, and we don't even fully understand a single cell.

Go to the Neuroscience Basics page for more on Neuroscience including:

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Books by Marcel Danesi, Ph.D.

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