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The idea of training your brain to improve your memory and sharpen your thinking is very attractive. After all, who doesn’t want to remember names (as well as faces), who doesn’t want to remember the interesting facts from the book they just read, and who doesn’t want to think clearly and creatively (and logically) through problems? It’s no
wonder, then, that brain training games are so popular. The problem with these games, though, is that they’ve divided the medical and scientific community along two lines: those that believe in their efficacy and those that don’t.
False hope
In 2009, Lab UK began a Brain Test Britain Experiment which was intended to find out if computer-based brain training games improved functioning across a range of cognitive skills. It was designed by some of the best (ahem) brains from the University of Cambridge and the Alzheimer’s Society, and was the biggest study conducted on the phenomenon.It found that computer-based brain training games did not make a meaningful difference to brain skills and definitely didn’t transfer skills from one set to another (e.g., from memory to problem solving).
In 2012, in an article for ABC Health & Wellbeing, Associate Professor Michael Valenzuela (Brain & Mind Research, University of Sydney) said that brain training games don’t improve brain functioning in healthy, working-age adults. Granted, adults perform better at the specific games they play, but the improvements aren’t transferable to other brain skills.
Valenzuela admits that more studies are needed, but he suggests that one reason the skills remain so specific is that adults stick to what they know and don’t challenge themselves with games in areas in which they are not comfortable. Basically, maths people stick to maths training and wordy people stick to word-based exercises.
According to Valenzuela, your brain will benefit more from a ‘cognitive lifestyle’, where you challenge yourself with a variety of activities in your day-to-day life. Activities include learning a new language or musical instrument, tai chi and yoga, and even travelling.
Not so false hope
Interestingly, in April 2010, the Alzheimer’s Society said it was conducting a trial to determine whether brain training had benefits to people over 60 years old or who are at risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.
In an article for Scientific American, P. Murali Doraiswamy and Marc E. Agronin cite a study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University, which found that while brain exercises don’t necessarily improve brain functioning for daily activities, there could be benefits that only become apparent in the long-term. The implication being that if you start training your brain now, you might, indeed, do yourself some favours as you get older and your brain naturally starts to decay.
Studies by the University of California, Berkeley and Maastricht University, Netherlands, have found that brain training games can improve self-esteem and willpower, respectively.
So, do computer-based brain training exercises work? You’ll have to make up your own mind about that because the scientific jury is still out.
Written by Sandy Cosser on behalf of Now Learning, which promotes tertiary education courses in Australia, including Excel short courses and healthcare, education and psychology degrees.
