Do brain-training games work?

So is the jury out?

Read the book 'The Sharp Brains Guide to Brain Fitness' by Alvaro Fernandez and you'll learn that brain fitness products "change the trajectory of the life curve so that younger minds improve their peaks and older people do not experience loss in cognitive abilities like mental flexibility and working memory".

The book includes interviews with 18 international scientists - skilled in fields like cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging - who have run experiments to prove that its possible to maintain a healthy brain, and improve its fitness.

Now the other side. Nature magazine published results in April 2010 which says that brain-training games are just an empty promise. What they do is improve performance of the brain-training game itself, but the effects, apparently, do not transfer to other aspects of brain functioning. As lead researcher Adrian Owen says: "You're not going to get better at playing the trumpet by practsing the violin".

So who is right? It's important to say two things:

1. Brain training should be thought of differently than simple mental activity. Brain training is "the structured use of cognitive exercises or technqiues aimed at improving specific brain functions". Nintendo's Brain Age software is more about brain stimulation than training per se and they actually make rather limited claims about the research backing up their product beyond a bland 'use it or lose it'.

2. There are many other science-based companies who have products which have been proven to train cognitive skills. Companies like Posit Science, CogniFit and Scientific Brain Training support the benefits of their products with specific laboratory evidence.

So, before writing off brain training it is important to ask three questions:

- what are the claims being made?
- what scientifically-run studies support the claims?
- is the training relevant to my needs and objectives?

If you are satisfied with the answers, go ahead and train your brain. Becoming sharper and younger is so important these days that its crucial to decide for yourself.