The offerings, from software and online workouts to handheld video games, are popping up at assisted living facilities, where residents and their children hope they ward off dementia.

The scientific community isn't ready to back computer games that claim to keep your mind young with memory drills, Sudoko games or other exercises, the Times said.

Cardiovascular exercise, however, is probably good brain exercise, one expert said.

"What's good for your heart's probably good for your head," Dr. Lynda Anderson, chief of Health Care and Aging Studies at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Times