Study Says Brain Age No Better Than “Pencil and Paper”

First, some disclosure: I realize this comes from The Times Online, the Times sucks, etc. Don’t kill the messenger, he’s just passing on what’s being said.

And what’s being said is that despite other tests that say Brain Age/Training helps people improve their minds, people could do just as well with “pencil and paper.”

The survey of ten-year-old children found no evidence to support claims in Nintendo’s advertising campaign, featuring Nicole Kidman, that users can test and rejuvenate their grey cells. “The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it’s fine,” said Alain Lieury, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Rennes, Brittany, who conducted the survey. “But it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test.”

They cite Nintendo’s claims that the programs can make users “two to three times better in tests of memory,” and improve “practical intelligence” by improving blood flow to the brain.

“The more you use the brain in a challenging way, the better it can work,” the Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima, who developed Brain Training, says on the Nintendo website. “We know that the mental processes of our brain start to weaken if we only use it in our routine daily life.”

Professor Lieury conducted his own test, finding that “helping one’s children with their homework, reading, playing Scrabble or Su Doku or watching documentaries instead of soap operas” yielded results which matched or surpassed the game. The test was conducted among 67 ten-year olds, and Lieury says “That’s the age where you have the best chance of improvement. If it doesn’t work on children, it won’t work on adults.”

In Stimulate Your Neurones, a book due out this month, Professor Lieury says: “There were few positive effects and they were weak. Dr Kawashima is one of a long list of dream merchants.”

Yeah, because we all know Dr. Kawashima is in it for the money. Unless I’m totally misunderstanding their use of the term “merchants.”

I am a little skeptical of the point of this, as of course doing the same figures on paper will yield similar results; I think the format is what helps make it more accessible to people.