Challenge your brain (even on the train)
Blog
Alzheimer's Research UK
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On 20 January 2026
January is the perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on your current lifestyle and start building healthier habits for the year ahead.
Many people like to use this time to set new goals – such as committing to regular exercise, eating more fruit and vegetables or cutting down on alcohol after the festive period.
All of these are fantastic steps to help you love your heart, support brain health and boost overall wellbeing. But one particular habit isn’t often included in this list: regularly challenging your brain.
Stay sharp by regularly challenging your brain
Stay sharp is one of the three pillars of Alzheimer’s Research UK’s Think Brain Health campaign and refers to taking time for your mental wellbeing, sleeping well and regularly challenging your brain to help protect it as you age.
Research shows that regularly challenging your brain supports its health by building cognitive reserve, which is the brain’s ability to keep working properly, even when affected by damage from diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
If someone with a high cognitive reserve develops dementia, studies have found that they typically experience Alzheimer’s symptoms around five years later than those who don’t regularly challenge their brains. It’s never too early to make positive lifestyle changes, and this brain-teasing puzzle is a great way to introduce brain challenges into your daily routine.
If nothing changes, one in two of us will be directly affected by dementia – either by developing the condition ourselves, caring for someone with it, or both. Through awareness activities like the Think Brain Health campaign, that inspire people to take action for their brain health, we will reach a future where fewer people develop dementia in the first place.
Dr Jacqui Hanley, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK
Of the 750,000 people who have completed the Think Brain Health Check-in, seven in 10 revealed that they have room for improvement when it comes to staying sharp.
There are many ways to challenge your brain. Crosswords, sudoku and other traditional brain teasers are a great way to do this, but research shows they are becoming less popular. In fact, recent consumer research found that only three in 10 Brits regularly take part in these kinds of activities in their free time, and that three in 10 people recognise that they do them less frequently than they did a decade ago.
That’s why we have developed this fun yet challenging visual brain teaser. Perfect for little pockets of time, such as the daily commute, this picture puzzle will inspire you to challenge your brain without adding yet another task to your to-do list.
The Think Brain Health picture puzzle
This travel-themed puzzle has been created with artist Chris Bishop and launched with support from Great Western Railway. In this picture, 40 train stations are hidden in visual clues. How many can you find? Play here.
Dan Panes, Head of External Communications at Great Western Railway, said:
We are delighted to support Alzheimer’s Research UK with the launch of this initiative.
Train travel gives people the freedom to use their journey time however they choose – whether that’s catching up on work, reading a book, or giving their brain a healthy workout with a puzzle like this.
This puzzle had some of our colleagues scratching their heads! It’s a brilliant way to make your journey time count. We hope passengers enjoy the challenge as much as we did.
Looking for more brain health tips? Take the Check-in
This picture puzzle is part of our Think Brain Health campaign which invites people to think about their brain healthy habits. A great place to start is with the Check-in, a short questionnaire about various lifestyle factors. It takes just 10 minutes and at the end you’ll receive a personalised report with helpful tips and tricks to better support your brain health, whether that’s regularly challenging your brain, taking steps to love your heart, or keeping socially connected to those around you.
Discover more: Take the Check-in.
About the author
Alzheimer's Research UK
How come I’ve got a score of 41/40? Several people on Facebook say the same. For a puzzle related to alzheimers it seems unnecessarily confusing.
Hi Mary, thank you for looking so closely at each of the clues! You’ve actually found the bonus clue for the eagle-eyed among us. Regularly challenging our brain can help protect our brain health as we age, lowering our risk of memory and thinking problems and dementia. Thank you for taking our challenge! 🏅
Quite pleased I got a lot of the answers but looking at answers given on the page 20 are missing!
Any hints on the bonus clue? I’m on 40 (after deciding the guy apparently asleep on his car is not bed-ford, and there is more than one way of hinting at coven-tree).
Hi Fred, thank you for your question.
The puzzle includes clues with varying difficulty levels to ensure that everyone, from novice through to expert puzzlers, will have something to look for.
We will reveal answers to the picture clues every week, over a period of 4 weeks. Follow our social media channels for clues and answer reveals. You can access the puzzle and check your answers on our website at any time.
Alzheimer’s Research UK website and social media links
https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org
Instagram (@alzheimersresearchuk)
X (@AlzResearchUK)
Facebook (@Alzheimer’s Research UK)
TikTok (@alzheimersresearchuk)
My husband helped and between us we had 20 correct answers, then 10 more by looking at other puzzlers’ clues in the comments. We are stuck on the bull wading into the water but can’t see any other clues in the picture after that. It is rather small on my iPad mini! We could try next on our PC screen. I would enjoy doing more puzzles like this as I am much better with anything visual and with words than numbers! Will you be sharing more like this on Facebook or your website?
Hi Sue, thank you for your comment. We are so pleased to hear that you are enjoying the puzzle.
You are nearly there with the bull in the water – but rather than a bull, the clue starts with another name for male cattle. We hope that helps.
To help you with the remaining clues and to get a better look at the puzzle on any device, click on the image and zoom in. And, if you would like to check any of your answers, then you can view these on the puzzle webpage here: https://www.alzheimersresearchuk.org/brain-health-check-in/picture-puzzle/.
The feedback on the puzzle has been extremely positive – we are so pleased to hear that so many people have used found that challenging their brains can be fun. At this time we do not have plans for another picture puzzle, but we will keep this under review.
In the meantime, if you would like to do more of this type of picture based puzzle, then a number of games companies have their own versions available.
I have thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle, I am still on 39 so 2 to go by the sounds of it. I hope there are going to be more in the future. Some of the stations I had never heard of.
I have donated and will do more later.
Hi Léonie, thank you for your feedback and donation. Due to the success of this challenge, we will definitely look into providing similar challenges in the future.
Sorry my score was low. Given that the stations were predominately English I was at a disadvantage as some names I have never heard of. Therefore could not make the links.
Hi Honorah, thank you for your comment.
There is no need to apologise – we’re glad that you tried out our challenge and are sure you did brilliantly!
Enjoyed this – only got 23 but lost 4 as it only recognises the full name of the station and not just the name of the place/location/town. Unlikely to get high scores unless players are big train users in England. Good fun though 😁
I really enjoyed this until I got to full name stations, which really threw me . I was testing it to see how suitable it was for my Mum, but there’s no way she’d cope with the lesser known stations and ones where the name isn’t just the area, but a specific station in that area.
Maybe make it a little less confusing if it’s aimed at those with dementia.