[picappgallerysingle id="5110901"]Brain teasers and puzzles have long been believed to help improve people’s concentration, attention and memory.  In fact, the production of books and computer games to build cognitive function is a multi-million dollar industry.  But are these brain workouts really effective?  Not according to a group of British researchers.  They found that healthy adults who undertake computer-based “brain-training” do not significantly improve their over all mental fitness.

On Tues., April 20th, 2010, the journal Nature published the largest study to date on brain enhancement exercises.  They tracked 11,430 participants who logged in via the internet several times each week and trained on tasks designed to improve a variety of cognitive skills, including memory and attention.  Participants also completed “benchmarking tests” to evaluate their progress.

Researchers found that each of the individual skills trained did improve, but the improvement did not cross over to other brain functions that were not a part of the training, even if those functions were closely related.

For example, one of the tasks participants trained on was a classic memory style game where they turn cards over to reveal images and they had to find two identical cards.  While their performance on this specific task improved over time the “benchmarking” test on a similar aspect of memory did not.

The researchers state that, “the widely held belief that commercially available computerized brain-training programs improve general cognitive function in the wider population in our opinion lacks empirical support.”

In an interview with Time Magzine, Jessica A. Grahn, one of the researches, points out that there are other proven ways to improve cognition — consistently getting a good night’s sleep, exercising and eating a healthy diet — that have all been shown to have positive impacts on brain function in the long term.

The study is not without it’s critics.  Torkel Klingberg, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, explains that the amount of training the participants in the study were subjected to was too small.  His research indicates that 8 to 12 hours of training on one specific test is needed.  Klingberg is part owner of Cogmed, a company that provides online cognitive training.

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