BOSTON -- The more people use their brain, the sharper it will be as they age, experts said. Now a Newton company is marketing a first-of-its kind software program designed to revitalize the mind.

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported that a new computer game called Mindfit is designed to stimulate the mind.

"We go to the gym to continue to work out and increase our body fitness and that has to be continual work. The brain is a muscle, too, and we have to keep stretching and strengthening it throughout our entire lives," said Dr. Steven Wetzner, of Vigorous Mind, the company that makes Mindfit.

Mindfit was developed in Israel where early studies showed just 20 minutes of the exercises three times a week will help stimulate the mind -- from strengthening attention span to quicker memory recall.

"What we're doing here is we're trying to exercise 14 different cognitive abilities, and that's the key because you're building connections in different areas of the brain," said Yuval Malinsky, CEO of Vigorous Mind.

Research has shown that learning new things, taking music lessons, doing puzzles and playing games, does help the mind stay active. Mindfit is unlike other memory enhancement programs in that it gauges the user's skill level and continues to adjust to challenge the brain.

"It sets the difficulty level to fit your needs. Not to frustrate you, but to really fit it to the level that stretches your brain, makes it sweat," said Moti Hodis, of Vigorous Mind.

Alzheimer's disease expert Paul Raia called Mindfit "clever," and despite the lack of long-term data showing it works, he said it may play a role to help keep people with mild dementia out of nursing homes longer.

"If an inexpensive tool like this can keep people in the community functioning independently, then we're going to be saving millions and millions of dollars," said Raia.

Mindfit costs $139.

The Newton company that is marketing the product admitted that there is no hard data that shows that the program can make a difference, but there are a number of ongoing studies including one at Oxford University in England.