01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, August 31, 2003

You plunk down hundreds of dollars annually for a membership in a health club in hopes of keeping your body fit. Would you similarly consider spending $40 for a year's access to a Web site designed to tone the contours of your mind?

Bruce Friedman hopes so. He's undertaken creating MyBrainTrainer.com, "the world's first virtual mental gymnasium." The site features nine interactive exercises lasting one to three minutes requiring the user to respond rapidly to a series of random stimuli. Each exercise -- which measures reaction time in thousandths of a second and allows users to track their own results and to compete with other members -- isolates a specific region of the brain, just as exercise equipment isolates specific muscle groups.

The result, according to a recent clinical study (available on the site): "MyBrainTrainer.com exercises increased IQ, reduced anxiety, and improved cognitive efficiency and speed. . . ." It claims increases as great as nine points in some participants' IQ scores.

Free trial memberships are available. Thereafter, you can join for $7.95 for one month, $19.95 for four months or $39.95 for a year.