Do Brain Trainer Games and Software Work?

July 2, 2009, 10:00 am by Scientific American: Mind and Brain

The market for brain-training software continues to grow, but evidence of the programs’ ability to boost memory or intelligence in a broadly applicable way (rather than simply making people better at the task they are practicing) remains scarce. New studies offer a tantalizing suggestion that certain programs may work--but the bulk of the research is murky.Neuroscientist Peter Snyder of Brown University reviewed nearly 20 software studies and concluded that, as a group, they were underwhelming. They are marred by flaws that induce confounding factors, such as a lack of control groups and follow-up, Snyder warns. More than a third of those he reviewed were too shoddy even to include in the analysis he printed early this year in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. “You’d be surprised at what gets published,” he says. Although some products claimed to treat dementia, Snyder did not find any evidence to back such claims. [More]

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