27 BRAIN GAMES TO EXERCISE THE BRAIN (ADULTS AND CHILDREN) - ARTE - 2025

Surely you know the typical hobbies to exercise the mind, such as word search or crossword puzzles. Nowadays, although you can still find it in newspapers or magazines, there are many different ones that you can get it via the internet, or download it as an application through your mobile.

The human brain is flexible and you can train it to function more efficiently through strategy games, skill games, memory games and mental agility, etc.

Today it is known that the brain is formed, organized and developed throughout life; is what is known as brain plasticity and one of its repercussions is that mental / cognitive skills can be trained throughout life.

One of the best and most fun ways is with mind / brain exercises. These brain games improve blood flow to your brain, streamline your mind, and reduce the effects of aging.

Although mental exercises improve cognitive skills in general, some improve capacities in a specific way: memory, concentration, attention, response time, verbal and non-verbal reasoning…

In addition to all this, training your brain is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and with higher neuronal density. The key to receiving the greatest benefits is to be consistent and practice them for several minutes a day.

Here are several games to work on mental abilities, psychological skills and activate your mind. They serve for children, adolescents, adults and seniors. Some will help you to practice them right here while you read and others will help you to put them into practice in your daily life.

You may also be interested in these games to exercise memory or these questions of logic and reasoning.

Mathematical reasoning games

Riddles are also very good for training the mind. You can find books about them. Specifically, it serves to train mathematical reasoning.

The circuit

A Ferrari takes 24 minutes to go around the Jerez circuit. The Mercedes takes 21. It's 2:12 p.m. and the Mercedes overtakes the Ferrari. When will he overtake it again?

Dinner

After a dinner you have left a 10% tip to the waiter and the taxi driver who has brought you 2 euros to your house.

If the taxi cost you exactly half as much as dinner and you have 2 euros left of a 20-euro bill, how much has dinner cost you?

The alien planet

We have traveled to an extraterrestrial planet and discovered beings with different numbers of eyes: some have 4, others 6, others 8, others 12.

If there are the same number of aliens in the extraterrestrial city and the total number of eyes is 5120, how many aliens are there?

Square of numbers

Place the numbers 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 in the empty boxes so that the sum of each column, row and diagonal is 65.

29, 27, 24, 20, 15… What number does the series follow? Options:

• 9
• 8
• 13
• eleven

How much is each fruit worth in sum?

What numbers should go in A and B, respectively?

Options:

• 3 and 6
• 3 and 2
• 3 and 3

Games of logic and ingenuity

The two tribes of Atlantis

In the lost city of Atlantis there are two tribes: the Atlanteans and the Atlantis. Atlanteans always lie and Atlanteans always tell the truth.

You find yourself walking with a man from one tribe and in the distance you see a boy from the other tribe. You ask the latter:

What tribe are you from? The child responds but you cannot hear him. Then you ask your partner from the other tribe who says "he said he is an Atlantean."

From what tribe is the man and from what tribe is the child?

SACO is to ASCO as 7683 is to… Options:

• 8376
• 6783
• 3867

Juan and the pizzas

Juan makes 80 pizzas with black shoes in 1:20 hours; with brown shoes it takes 80 minutes. With which of the shoes does it take less? Options:

• With the black shoes
• With the brown shoes
• Without shoes
• It takes the same with both

Memory games

Cities

1) Try to memorize these cities

2) Answer these questions

• Which city is the one in the top box in the center?
• What city is the one in the center box on the right?
• What city is the one in the bottom left box?
• …

Persons

1) Memorize the following row of people:

2) Answer these questions:

• Where is the woman with the yellow scarf?
• Where is the tallest man?
• What is the man in position 4 like?
• What is the man in last position like?

The rabbit that reproduces itself

Let's say that a species of rabbit can reproduce on its own and has one child a day; the next day there will be two rabbits, the next four, the other eight… If after 30 days we fill a cage with rabbits, how many days would it take to fill it if we start with two rabbits?

In this article you can find other exercises to improve memory.

Verbal intelligence games

Mixed words

Here are 4 mixtures of words. With each mix you can write the name of a city. For example: DARMDI (MADRID).

• ABDEPSTU
• AGINPRSU
• ABELRSSU
• AELMNORT

Form word

Make the longest word you can by moving from box to box and in any direction. You can start wherever you want and use each letter only once.

Reasoning games

Guess the animal

ABC

This game is used to improve reasoning, memory and language skills.

1) The group chooses a topic.

2) The people in the group take turns thinking of words on that topic that begin with the letters of the alphabet (starting with A).

For example, for the "beach" theme: A (sand), B (boat), C (crab)…

3) If someone gets stuck on a letter it can happen.

If you want to make it more difficult, you have the option of going around the alphabet more than one time to make the word search more complicated.

Traditional games

If you are traditional, you can always choose one of these games. They are simple and you can play them in smartphone applications (many you can download for free).

• Crossword.
• Sudoku.
• Reading.
• Puzzles
• Video game.

In the next one you have to find the words in the left column horizontally, vertically or dianonally. The missing words hide a secret message (in English).

In the one below you have to find two identical pieces.

Mental agility games

The 3 toasts

You need to prepare toast for three people. They each want a slice of toast.

You have a toaster that can toast you two pieces of one-sided toast at the same time (not both sides of a single toast). You need a minute to toast a slice on one side.

What is the minimum time you need to toast the three slices on both sides and what is the best way?

James Bond phrase

Can you decode the following line from James Bond?

GN ÑCPCOC OWOEC ÑWGTG

Perceptual speed games

Find the man in the photo in 3 seconds

According to medical experiments, if you find the man in 3 seconds, your brain is more developed than that of normal people.

If you found it in 1 minute, congratulations! your brain has a normal development.

If you find it in less than 3 minutes, it seems like your brain is working a little slow.

But don't worry, take a good look and you'll end up solving it.

Find the figure related to the model

How many triangles are in this figure? Options:

• 9
• 12
• 10
• eleven
• 13

Discover a perfect five-pointed star in the drawing

Which of these four figures does not fit into the set?

What figure complements the image?

Select the correct option

Attention games

In these drawings you must find the 5 differences

Find the forest animals

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