Innovation
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What is the overall effect of technological development?
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Main Content
A Fitness Regime For The Mind
Brain training games have created a million dollar industry, but do they work?
Evidence suggests that keeping the mind active in later years helps reduce the risk of dementia. Brain training games are marketed with this in mind. The people behind the games say that regular use will make people’s brains sharper, younger and faster. However, recent scientific research suggests brain-training games have no effect on cognitive function.
Brain games are a billion dollar industry, but can this expensive hobby really improve a person’s mental abilities? Brain game companies use images of the brain lighting up when a user plays a game. Although a persuasive marketing technique, the picture simply shows that the brain is working, and nothing else.
The BBC decided to conduct an experiment, along with the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, and the Alzheimer’s society, for the programme, “Bang Goes the Theory”. This investigation followed 11,430 people over six weeks to establish what effect, if any, regular playing of brain-training games would have.
The research found that although players increased their ability to play the games, they didn’t improve their memory, planning or general reasoning. These findings apply to short term brain use and all the experts agreed that more testing is needed to see if these games improve brain functioning on a long term basis.
The makers of these games say they never claimed the games were meant to improve cognitive function, but said that the games require users to perform fun challenges, which can help stimulate the mind. It is established that the skills used when playing these games are not transferable to other mental tasks.
Evidence also suggests that people would be better off exercising, eating healthily and keeping an active social life, than playing brain-training games. In this way a person is more likely to reduce the risk of dementia. A simple crossword puzzle could be more beneficial than a brain game.