David Horvitz, 94, gives himself a mental workout with a computer in the Brain Fitness Center at EPOCH Assisted Living, in Providence. Horvitz says the mental gymnastics have sharpened his concentration.

Journal photo Bob Thayer

On a recent Wednesday morning, a small group of eighty- and ninety-somethings gathered around a table at Pocasset Bay Manor retirement home in Johnston and peered into the future of American health care.

The assembled, part of a new “mind aerobics” program, meditated, drew pictures of their surroundings and shouted out foods that correspond with each letter of the alphabet.

There was bologna and butterscotch for the letter “b.” Candy and cantaloupe for the letter “c.” And when it came to “d,” something with a little more kick.

“Daiquiris,” said Vicki Byron, 89. “Let’s get some refreshment in there.”

Public health professionals and personal trainers have long sung the praises of the bicycle and Stairmaster.

But the decades-long quest for physical fitness is making way for a new, nationwide push for “brain health.”

Scientists still have much to learn about what can be done to sharpen the mind and stave off dementia.

But as more baby boomers near retirement, and watch their elderly parents succumb to Alzheimer’s disease, no one is waiting around for time-tested solutions.

Computerized “brain gyms,” with games designed to boost memory and attentiveness, have sprouted up in 400 assisted-living centers and rest homes across the country, according to one estimate.

Health insurer Humana is offering brain teaser software to Medicare recipients at discounted rates.

AARP is urging seniors to eat kale, mackerel and other “brain-healthy” foods.

And last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laid out a National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health, designed to boost awareness and encourage more research in the field.

“It’s a topic that people are quite interested in,” said Laurel Coleman, a geriatrician who serves on the national board of the Alzheimer’s Association.

The most solid scientific findings to date suggest that controlling diabetes and obesity, quitting smoking and staying physically active are correlated with improved brain health.

Proper diet, strong social ties and emotional supports might also help, though that research is more limited.

But there is no conclusive evidence that filling out crossword puzzles or playing memory games on the computer will keep seniors sharp in the supermarket or behind the wheel.

Don’t tell that to David Horvitz, 94, who lives at EPOCH Assisted Living on the East Side in Providence.

Horvitz was one of the first residents to take advantage of the “brain fitness center” EPOCH opened two years ago in a small, carpeted room filled with five computers and a series of posters detailing The Wisdom of Einstein.

On a recent afternoon, Horvitz sat in front of a computer, pulled on a pair of headphones and demonstrated his mastery of a game that challenges the user to distinguish between similar sounds.

The mental gymnastics, he said, had sharpened his concentration.

“I’m a reader,” he said, “and I frequently found my mind wandering, to the extent that I would have to reread a paragraph again and again. And I found after a couple of weeks that I wasn’t having to do that.”

That sort of experience has helped fuel an explosion in the brain fitness software market, with sales climbing to $225 million last year, more than double the figure in 2005, according to a recent analysis by SharpBrains, a market research and consulting firm.

Individual consumers make up a sizable chunk of the market, with many drawn to a popular Nintendo offering called “Brain Age.”

School systems attempting to help students with dyslexia are also buying up the games, according to the study. Corporations are showing interest.

And Alvaro Fernandez, cofounder and chief executive officer of SharpBrains, said the software’s growing presence in retirement homes points to an expanding definition of health.

“More communities are thinking, ‘we have to add this to our offerings’ –– like they have a swimming pool or a fitness club,” he said.

Scientists remain skeptical about whether mastering a computer game does much to improve day-to-day living.

But they say there is mounting evidence that seniors can sharpen the mind, or at least delay decline.

Much of the hope is rooted in a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in December 2006.

Researchers, funded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Nursing Research, enrolled adults 65 and older in a series of 10 training sessions focused on one of three skills: reasoning, memory or speed of processing.

They asked participants to pick out patterns in a series of letters (“What comes next in this series: a m b a n b a o b a…”), remember word lists and identify whether an image briefly flashed on a screen was a car or a truck.

And with training, the adults in all three groups showed improvement that held up five years later.

Michael Marsiske, a coauthor of the study, says the research suggests that “the old myth that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks needs to be firmly abolished.”

“Older adults can learn,” he continued in a recent email, “even in areas that are challenging or in which they may have experienced declines.”

But Marsiske, an associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida, emphasized that the impact of brain fitness training on the subjects’ daily lives was limited.

Only those in the reasoning group reported significantly less difficulty with meal preparation, housework and telephone use.

And when researchers actually tested everyday skills such as identifying information on medication labels and finding information in the yellow pages, they found no substantial effect.

Indeed, Marsiske suggested, a senior hoping to rebuild his budgeting skills might be better off skipping the abstract reasoning exercises and taking classes that specifically target financial literacy.

But as researchers around the world attempt to identify the most effective way to bolster an aging mind, entrepreneurs are attempting to cash in on the new interest in brain fitness.

LearningRX, a national chain of tutoring centers with a facility in Warwick, is offering “cognitive skills training” instead of help with specific subjects like math or English.

In December, San Francisco company vibrantBrains opened the nation’s first standalone “health club for your brain,” where “the sweat is figurative, but the results are real.”

And assisted-living businesses are placing brain fitness at the center of branded wellness programs with names such as Engage Life and LiveWell!

Jim Concotelli, vice president of resident programs for Tampa, Fla.-based Horizon Bay Senior Communities, which operates Pocasset Bay Manor, said the “mind aerobics” program he developed helps to differentiate his company in a crowded marketplace.

But he said it is also an attempt to attract a new generation of residents with a more holistic view of health.

“Baby boomers have had a higher level of education than generations that came before them,” he said, and they will expect more to stimulate the mind.

Horizon Bay operates 70 facilities nationwide, including eight in Rhode Island.

The nonprofit and public sectors are also attempting to innovate in the nascent field.

Michael Patterson, manager of brain health for AARP, said his organization has been staging forums on the topic for much of the last decade.

In the coming months, he said, the group plans to develop online brain health forums as part of a broader effort to build a “Facebook for the 50-plus crowd,” referring to a social-networking Web site popular among the younger set.

And AARP is hoping to train “brain health ambassadors” in communities all over the country to help raise awareness of brain fitness issues.

Meanwhile, in Rhode Island, brain fitness is slowly making inroads at senior centers. On a recent afternoon at the Cranston Senior Center, there was palpable excitement as a small group of regulars gathered around a U-shaped bank of computers to take their first crack at Happy Neuron, a Web-based program designed to boost mental acuity.

Some struggled.

“It’s all Greek to me,” said Tony Vieira, 81, a retired toolmaker with a broad grin.

But Geraldine Zifcak Arthur, 68, a retired adult education teacher, warmed quite nicely to the task.

She listed countries that begin with the letter “A” with ease and scored well on a game that asks users to pick out irregular shapes in a series of visual patterns.

“I’m glad the senior center is going to have it,” she said, of the computer program. “I might even get my own.”

dscharfe@projo.com