????珍妮?西爾斯多弗對各種分心的事情早已司空見慣。這位59歲的政府關系專家在俄亥俄州哥倫布市的全美互惠保險公司（Nationwide Insurance）工作，由于是開放的辦公室環(huán)境，她想不聽到鄰近工作間同事的對話都難。

????但西爾斯多弗有個秘密武器：她已經(jīng)花了不少時間在電腦上進行注意力訓練，任務就是在屏幕上各類物體滿天飛的干擾下保持一個虛擬籃球的平衡。

????她說：“我屏息凝神，對自己說‘專心，專心，再專心。’我在頭腦中想象那個籃球，試圖保持它的平衡。突然之間，我又重新進入了工作狀態(tài)。”

????其它公司的員工只敢偷偷摸摸地玩紙牌游戲或者單詞接龍，全美互惠保險公司反而鼓勵西爾斯多弗去玩各種益智游戲，因為它們已經(jīng)成為公司健身計劃的組成部分。游戲套裝名為“腦力培養(yǎng)方案”（My Brain Solutions），由腦力資源公司（Brain Resources ）制作。該軟件旨在指導員工如何集中注意力和應對壓力，從而提升工作效率和記憶力，增進積極思維，并達成其它增強腦力的目標。

????隨著越來越多的職位需要腦力活動、創(chuàng)造力和交流技巧，員工僅僅坐在辦公桌前已經(jīng)遠遠不夠了，他們還需要思維敏捷、情緒飽滿、不受干擾。有人找到了一種解決方案：頭腦訓練。

????“我們發(fā)現(xiàn)大腦和肌肉很像。如果你鍛煉它，它就會變得強健。大腦真的能夠生成新的神經(jīng)元，”腦力資源公司的CEO格雷戈里?拜爾說。“如果你教會大家如何優(yōu)化管理那些壓力重重的多任務環(huán)境，你就能夠讓他們保持（精神）健康。”

????“腦力培養(yǎng)方案”首先按四個維度來評估用戶的頭腦健康狀況：情緒、思考、自律、感受。為了強化最弱的認知功能，軟件將基于測試結果向用戶推薦特定游戲。軟件系統(tǒng)還能跟蹤用戶的進步，為游戲時間記點，當用戶完成階段成果時還會頒發(fā)勛章。

????來自密蘇里州堪薩斯城的電子病歷提供商塞內(nèi)公司（Cerner Corporation）也在今年夏天引入了“腦力培養(yǎng)方案”，作為一個試點項目，面向美國國內(nèi)約9,500名年輕而富進取心的員工提供支持。塞內(nèi)公司最終可能將該項目提供給全球、包括印度在內(nèi)的員工。尋求精神衛(wèi)生保健在印度甚至是相當大的恥辱。

????“通常只有到了無法正常工作與生活的境地，人們才會去關注自己的精神健康；而那時他們多半已經(jīng)患有精神疾病了，”塞內(nèi)公司的副總裁兼首席醫(yī)療官戴維?尼爾稱。“腦力資源公司讓消費者得以隨時隨地進行頭腦訓練，而且還可以自己制定進度，無需他人干預。”

????短短兩周之內(nèi)就有1,000多名塞內(nèi)公司員工報名參與該項目，當前用戶達2,500人，超出了尼爾的預期。這是公司很感興趣的重要領域，因為30%的塞內(nèi)公司員及其家屬有抑郁和焦慮這類行為健康問題，（每年的）相關醫(yī)療費用高達約200萬美元。尼爾稱，費用最高的病例是與壓力相關的癥狀，占到塞內(nèi)公司員工的約5%。

????Jeanne Siersdorfer is no stranger to distraction. The 59-year-old government relations specialist at Nationwide Insurance in Columbus, Ohio works in an open office environment where it's all too easy to latch onto cubicle neighbors' conversations.

????But Siersdorfer has a secret weapon: hours of computer time she's logged balancing a virtual basketball while other objects fly across the computer screen.

????"I catch myself and say, 'focus, focus, focus.' I visualize that crazy basketball and trying to balance it and the next thing I know, I'm back in my zone at work," she says.

????Unlike other office workers who may play solitaire or Words With Friends on the sly, Nationwide actually encourages Siersdorfer to play the basketball game, among others, and has made it a part of its wellness plan. The games, which are produced by a company called Brain Resources and part of a package called My Brain Solutions, aim to teach concentration and stress management techniques to boost executive function and memory, increase positive thinking, and achieve other brain-enhancing goals.

????As more and more jobs rely on knowledge work, creativity, and communication skills, it's not enough to have workers sitting at their desks -- they must also be mentally sharp, emotionally present, and free from distraction. The answer for some: brain training.

????"The brain, we're finding out, is much like muscles in the body. If you exercise it, it gets better. You actually grow neurons," says Gregory Bayer, chief executive of Brain Resources, which created My Brain Solutions. "If you can teach people how to manage those multitasking and stressful environments optimally, you're going to preserve their health."

????My Brain Solutions users begin with an assessment of their brain to provide a baseline along four axes: emotion, thinking, self-regulation, and feeling. Based on the resulting profile, the software suggests specific games to build up the areas of cognitive function that are weakest. The system tracks users' progress, giving points for playing time and badges when users reach milestones.

????Cerner Corporation, an electronic medical records provider based in Kansas City, Mo., introduced My Brain Solutions as a pilot program this summer, aiming to offer support to its young, hard-driving workforce of about 9,500 in the U.S. Cerner may eventually expand the program to its global workforce, including staffers in areas like India, where seeking mental health care comes with a considerable stigma.

????"Usually, people don't engage in this type of activity until they're not functioning well; they're headed toward a diagnosis," says David Nill, vice president and chief medical officer at Cerner. "Brain Resources brought on an ability for consumers to engage any time, any place, on their own terms without having to talk to anybody."

????Over 1,000 Cerner employees signed up for the program within the first two weeks and currently the company has 2,500 users, more than Nill anticipated. It's a key area of interest because behavioral health issues such as depression and anxiety affect 30% of Cerner's employees and family members and cost about $2 million in health expenses. The most expensive cases, which represent about 5% of Cerner's workers, involve stress-related conditions, according to Nill.