The second task engaged the same brain areas as the first. One tested their working memory in a certain task that they had been trained on, and the other tested them on another, related task that they received no specific training in. The participants took part in two experiments. Working memory refers to the brain’s ability to retain new information - such as a new name, a shopping list, or a telephone number - for a short period of time. To correct this, they used “a targeted training approach” in which 72 participants were trained on “two different, but related, working memory tasks.” Stojanoski and colleagues explain in their paper that the controversy around the cognitive benefits of brain-training apps is mainly due to the fact that most studies have not chosen precise cognitive skills and outcome measures in a consistent manner. Testing the benefits of training the brain Neuroscientists at Western University in Ontario, Canada, set out to investigate if the alleged cognitive benefits of brain-training tasks can be transferred to other tasks that the users haven’t been specifically trained for - but which engage the same brain regions.īobby Stojanoski, a research scientist in the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University, is the lead author of the paper, which was published in the journal Neuropsychologia. Now, a new study backs up the latter camp. A report published last year, for example, monitored the brain activity, cognitive skills, and decision-making abilities of young adults, only to conclude that brain-training games “do not boost cognition.” On the other side of the debate, however, we find those who say that no such benefits exist.
But when placed under scientific scrutiny, the benefits of such brain-training games turn out to be controversial.įor instance, some studies have found that brain-training games improve the “executive functions, working memory, and processing speed” of young people, while others hail the benefits of such games for preserving cognitive health in seniors. Share on Pinterest Brain-training games may hold no real benefit, a new study suggests.īrain-training apps, such as Lumosity or Elevate, are being used by tens of millions of people worldwide.
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