If You Can Score At Least 17 Points On This 10-Question Brain Test, Your Mind Is In Good Shape
Wondering about your brain health? Take the test a neurologist gives his patients.
Olha Ruskykh | Pexels Do you ever wonder about your brain health? Especially as we start to get older, it can be very easy to start questioning if our brains are in top working order — those moments we all have of forgetting why we entered a room will do that to ya! But what if there were a simple test you could give yourself that would reveal the state of things?
A neurologist shared a simple 10-question brain test that shows whether your mind is in good shape.
Dr. Baibing Chen, known as Dr. Bing online, is a Mayo Clinic-trained neurologist at the University of Michigan who specializes in treating epilepsy. He also creates content for social media about all things brain health, from helpful tips on how to avoid strokes to everyday risks to neurological wellness we may not even know we're taking.
Recently, Dr. Bing shared a simple 10-question test he gives patients to assess how healthy their brains are. Each question tests a different type of brain function, like speech or memory, and each has a point value. Land a score of at least 17 points, and you're in solid neurological shape. Here we go!
1. What season, month, day of the week, and year is it? 1 point.
Okay, this one's a freebie for most of us, which is probably why you only get one point for correctly naming all four! But this question tests temporal orientation — basically knowing where you are in time — which is a critical function of the medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex regions of the brain.
2. What do you call the thing you tell time with on your wrist? 1 point.
This tests word retrieval and object recognition, and obviously, the nuance between "clock" and the correct answer, "watch," can be revealing of these skills. (You're welcome for helping you cheat on this question!) This question engages the left temporal lobe, occipitotemporal cortex, and angular gyrus parts of the brain, which all play crucial roles in language and object memory.
3. Remember 3 things and be able to recall them at the end of this test. 1 point.
The three things Dr. Bing named were garden, mirror, and train, but you could pick any three. The point is to commit them to memory and see if you can still recall them once this test is over. This tests what's called your immediate or working memory, and is related to the function of the hippocampus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which both manage memory.
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4. What is the definition of an island? 1 point.
This question tests semantic knowledge, which pertains to general concepts we accumulate throughout living our lives, as well as language comprehension. It gauges the function of the left anterior lobe, which is where we hold this type of specific information, like names of places and people, as well as the inferior frontal gyrus, which is involved in language processing and speech.
5. Repeat the sentence, "The sunset painted the sky with brilliant colors." 1 point.
This is the easiest one yet for most of us, right? But it's actually very revealing. It tests auditory-verbal processing. That means hearing and then repeating speech, basically, along with syntactic processing, which revolves around the basic rules of things like grammar.
This question engages the brain's left perisylvian network, which manages those skills, along with the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex involved in memory and attention, and the parietal lobe involved in processing the things happening around you.
6. What is the similarity between a plane and a bicycle? 1 point.
I'll just be honest, I have no idea what the answer to this is beyond they're both modes of transportation — wait… is that the answer? That seems too simple… Well, anyway, Dr. Bing said this question tests abstract reasoning and the brain regions responsible for it, like the frontopolar left temporal lobe.
7. Spell the word planet backwards. 6 possible points (1 per letter).
Alright, if you've been lagging on the questions so far — well, you should call a doctor, but this is also an opportunity to catch up! Dr. Bing said this tests our sequencing, working memory, and attention skills. Basically, getting all the right letters and getting them in the right order tests the functions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe.
8 Snap your fingers when told to clap and do nothing when you're told to snap. 3 possible points.
Did you catch that? Basically, you're being tested on your ability to execute contradictory directions without getting confused. So Dr. Bing would tell you to "Clap, snap, clap," and if you do the right, uh, wrong thing every time, you'd get three points. This tests your attention, response inhibition — your ability to NOT do what you're told, in this case — and cognitive flexibility, which are all prefrontal cortex functions.
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9. Say your name after you close your eyes and lift your left hand. 3 possible points.
This is basically designed to be confusing in order to test your attention, executive function and motor planning skills, which are associated with the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain, which are involved in skills like self-control and sensory perception, as well as the supplementary motor area that governs the planning and execution of our movements.
10. What are the three things you were asked to remember earlier? 3 possible points.
NO SCROLLING UP YOU CHEATERS. Do you remember the three things? Be honest! This, as you might guess, tests your delayed memory recall, an indicator of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex functions pertaining to memory.
If you failed this one, you're not alone — many people in Dr. Bing's TikTok comments couldn't remember the three things either, so it's probably nothing to worry about. Although given how messy many social media commenters are these days, that might not be quite the standard to hold ourselves to!
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
