Brain Awareness Week, an educational outreach program designed to “increase public awareness of the progress and benefits of brain research,” runs March 15-21. Founded by the Dana Alliance For Brain Initiatives, the cerebral celebration is now in its 15th year.

In honor of the event, I’ve rounded up some brain focused resources to give your mind a bit of exercise and stimulation.

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The Brain Fitness Program, the company’s flagship offering, features six computer-based exercises for use on a PC or Mac. These exercises speed up and sharpen how the brain processes and remembers sounds.

Save $79 when you use coupon code Brain20

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Brain Centered Videos (Click the links to view videos)

How Optical Illusions Work

Going Home – Award Winning Film On Alzheimer’s

Your Brain In Love

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Try Some Puzzles Courtesy Of The Dana Foundation

You can download and print a wide variety of puzzles and games by visiting the event website. While you’re there, check out the rest of the free resources and tools.

Do You Have Resources To Share?

Post a comment below and share brain related resources you think our readers might enjoy.

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If you haven’t solved it yet, don’t scroll down any further. The answer is posted, along with some solutions from our readers.

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The answer is 78. Check out some of the solutions listed below.

Winter posted:

2,3,10= (2+3)x2 = 10

3,4,21 = (3+4)x3 = 21

4,5,36 = (4+5)x4 = 36

5,6,55 = (5+6)x5 = 55

6,7, ? = (6+7)x6 = 78

Bryna posted:

Clearly (6+7) x 6 = 78 that was fun but pretty easy. not too much of a “tease.” Thanks!

Erno posted:

The answer is 78. the formula is 6 +7 = 13 x 6 =78.

Erik posted:

My answer is: Given the 3 numbers a, b and c in all your examples it is so that c= (a+b)* a. The answer is therefore (6+7)*6 = 78. Nevertheless I cannot exclude other solutions.

(Note: Edited typo to illustrate the formula correctly.)

Kara posted:

(2+3)*2=10
(3+4)*3=21
(4+5)*4=36
(5+6)*5=55
(6+7)*6=78

Wayne posted:

The answer I got was 78 as well. The pattern I saw was subtracting the first right hand number from the one above it gave an answer that increased by 4 each time going up the line.

Malka posted:

It was too easy!!
Dont think about the small numbers they are useless
Its + 4 between each result
21-10= 11 + (4) = 15
36-21= 15 + (4) = 19
55-36= 19 + (4) = 23
After that just do 55 + 23 = 78

Felix posted:

Option one
21-10 = 11
36-21 = 15
55-21 = 19
? -55 = 19+4

therefore ? = 55+19+4 = 78

Lawrence posted:

I found the answer by first noticing the pattern in the numbers on the right in that they increase by 4 each time. I’m not looking at it right now but recollection is that they went up as follows: by 11, then 15, then 19 and I rightly determined the next number would go up by 23. I then looked for a mathematical relationship that could be determined by the first two numbers and found what many of you found. It was neat to see that the right increase was X+4, while the left relied on a more cumbersome Xsquared + X times Y.

William posted:

Or you can say the sum of the first 2 #s x the 1st # = the 3rd #.

Do you have a favorite brain teaser you’d like to share? Email it to us here, and we’ll post it on the blog.

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As I sat down on the couch after devouring a sugar cookie for dessert, my uncle handed me one of those big legal note pads. On it was a brain teaser that a friend had sent him via email. In my sugared brain fog, I worked through it and thought I would share it with you.

Look at the following series of numbers and determine which number goes in place of the question mark.

2,3,10

3,4,21

4,5,36

5,6,55

6,7, ?

You can post your answers in the comments below, and I will post the solution next week.

Have you cast your vote in our latest Poll?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.Similar Posts:

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The sites are in no particular order, and many thanks go out to the group for being active members of the Brain Training 101 community.

Brain Injury Survival Kit

Cheryle Sullivan, MD runs this informative and welcoming site on Traumatic Brain Injury.

“If you or someone you know or love has had a Traumatic Brain Injury then you know that the road that they will travel will be very much like a journey full of ups and downs as well as highs and lows. This website is dedicated to those who have and do live with Brain Injuries every day, their families, supporters and caregivers.”

Brain Food Factory

Ric Allport heads up this monthly newsletter full of trivia and puzzles.

“We are encouraging people to actively feed their brains with interesting fun things to do to keep those brain cells working well. We like to think of it as food for the brain.”

The Best Brain

Debbie Hampton, a brain injury survivor, shares her journey of recovery.

“We have much more power to recover from a brain injury, improve our brain’s functioning, and to create our own reality with our brain than we ever thought possible. Here I will tell you how I did so and encourage you to do the same.”

Your Inner Wizard

Tom Justin is the creator of this personal problem solving center.

“The power of creativity and successful living are within this source. What you will find here is proof, and how to use Your Inner Wizard daily. But only if you’re willing to be an open-minded skeptic.”

MindMatters

Terry South is the voice behind this evolving startup.

It’s nice design is easy on the eyes and is in need of just a bit of direction. Maintaining a blog is no easy task, and I applaud Terry for stepping up to the challenge.

Do you have a brain focused blog or website? Subscribe to our free newsletter so that you can be featured in future blog posts!

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With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, many of us are walking around with love (or chocolate) on the brain. In celebration of the sugary sweet holiday, I’ve gathered some love inspired articles and videos I think you’ll enjoy.

What Happens To Your Brain When You Fall In Love?
The chemical steps that lead to love.

Just Thinking Of A Loved One Can Reduce Physical Pain
Next time you are in pain, think of a loved one – or at least look at a photo of them.

Why You Blush
Dutch psychologists find that the presence (or absence) of blushing determines whether your embarrassing blunder will be forgiven.

The Brain In Love – Why We Crave Love So Much

Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love — and people who had just been dumped — to figure out why we crave love.

Do I Love My Wife? An Investigative Report
A.J. Jacobs volunteers to go into an fMRI machine so researchers can “see” how he truly feels about his wife.

Here’s a short video that illustrates the fMRI test above.

How Your Brain Handles Love And Pain
Just knowing your loved one is in pain activates a specific area of your brain and leads to empathy.

Can You Stay Madly In Love With Your Spouse?
Love just might leave a strong impression on your brain, as well as your heart, suggest researchers from Stony Brook University.

And for those of you who aren’t so fond of the big red day, no worries. Monday will be here soon enough, and I’ll cease with the mushy stuff.    ;-)

image ©istockphoto/Kativ

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This morning I watched an inspiring and deceptively simplified video of brain surgery broadcast live via the Today Show.

The patient is 81 year old Ben Colbert who suffers from Essential Tremor, a progressive neurological condition which can cause trembling in the hands, head or legs.

Simply keeping his food on a plate became a task he could not complete, so he underwent neurosurgery on the left part of his brain which stopped the trembling in his right hand.

While regaining control of his dominant hand enabled him to return to tasks such as writing checks, Ben quickly realized he needed both hands to be steady in order to truly return to his normal life. He talked of typing on the computer, playing the piano and hugging his baby granddaughter.

You can watch the video below where you’ll see Ben undergo deep brain stimulation while remaining awake throughout the surgery.

It’s impressive, especially towards the end when Dr. Nancy Snyderman suggests that the procedure will be used to help those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease – and in the future perhaps Depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

What do you think?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Last night I headed out for a hike around sunset to catch The Moon Illusion. This phenomenon occurs once or twice a year when the moon is at its closest point to us – and is full.

Doing a search on the web turns up quite a few different explanations for the illusion – and a great deal of debate. There is one agreement, though. It is a fantastic sight!

The following is background information provided by Nasa with links at the conclusion for further resources. I’ve also included some photos I took of the event.

Sky watchers have known for thousands of years that low-hanging moons look unnaturally big. At first, astronomers thought the atmosphere must be magnifying the Moon near the horizon, but cameras showed that is not the case. Moons on film are the same size regardless of elevation: example. Apparently, only human beings see giant moons.

The moon just above the horizon. ©Erin Matlock

Are we crazy?

After all these years, scientists still aren’t sure. When you look at the Moon, rays of moonlight converge and form an image about 0.15 mm wide on the retina in the back of your eye. High moons and low moons make the same sized spot, yet the brain insists one is bigger than the other. Go figure.

A similar illusion was discovered in 1913 by Mario Ponzo, who drew two identical bars across a pair of converging lines, like the railroad tracks pictured right. The upper yellow bar looks wider because it spans a greater apparent distance between the rails. This is the “Ponzo Illusion.”

The Ponzo Illusion. Image credit: Dr. Tony Phillips/NASA

Some researchers believe that the Moon Illusion is Ponzo’s Illusion, with trees and houses playing the role of Ponzo’s converging lines. Foreground objects trick your brain into thinking the Moon is bigger than it really is.

But there’s a problem: Airline pilots flying at very high altitudes sometimes experience the Moon Illusion without any objects in the foreground. What tricks their eyes?

Maybe it’s the shape of the sky. Humans perceive the sky as a flattened dome, with the zenith nearby and the horizon far away. It makes sense; birds flying overhead are closer than birds on the horizon. When the moon is near the horizon, your brain, trained by watching birds (and clouds and airplanes), miscalculates the Moon’s true distance and size.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Sunset on the other side of the mountain. ©Erin Matlock

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The Moon Illusion Explained

The Moon Illusion, An Unsolved Mystery

The Ponzo Illusion and the Moon

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We’re starting a new feature here at Brain Training 101 – Polls! Periodically we’ll have a new poll up on the homepage and would love to see your answers.

Here’s our first one.

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In Brain Matters, the third installment of the PBS special, The Human Spark, host Alan Alda looks within his own brain in order to give us insight as to just what makes humans unique.

After some three and a half billion years of life’s evolution on this planet – and after almost two million years since people recognizable as human first walked its surface – a new human burst upon the scene, apparently unannounced.

It was us. – from the website

The series aims to answer three questions.

• What is the nature of human uniqueness?
• Where did the Human Spark ignite, and when?
• And perhaps most tantalizingly, why?

Through MRIs and EEGs, we discover the inner workings of the brain which provide for language acquisition, complex tool use and social interaction. Alda offers up his own images which show a critical network that comes alive when he is simply doing nothing – day-dreaming.

The Human Spark – Brain Matters airs on PBS on Wednesday, January 20, 2010. Check your local listings for times.

Part One – Becoming Us
View the full episode here.

Part Two – So Human, So Chimp
View the full episode here.

Part Three – Brain Matters
View the full episode here.

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