We’ve talked previously about brain fitness programs, including a review of them back in 2007 and some digging into the research backing for them last year. We’re skeptical of a new industry that appears virtually out of nowhere that bases much of its exercises on activities that you could do just as easily for free.
As we said seven months ago, the best thing you can do for your brain is to save your money and go out for a walk. Physical exercise and activity is the only robust finding in research that can help an already healthy brain retain its elasticity in older age. Why? A more physically fit body has better blood flow, and better blood flow to the brain helps keep it functioning at the top of its game.
Since we last wrote on this topic, little has changed. There’s been no new definitive studies showing that brain training programs have any specific benefits to people without a brain disease, such as Alzheimer’s. But that didn’t stop the Ventura County Star doing a story on the growing trend and industry of brain fitness:
[Alvaro Fernandez] said he believes we’ll start to see brain fitness centers inside health clubs, and they won’t be just for seniors.
“I’m not sure we’re going to have separate places called brain fitness centers,” he said. “We’re already seeing health clubs where they have a room or classes for brain fitness.”
Physical fitness centers benefit from tools that help keep our bodies fit. The same can’t be said for our brains, where such tools, while available, have little proven effectiveness for everyday people looking to keep their brains “fit.” Instead, I prefer the sounder and unbiased reasoning of Dr. David Knopman, a spokesman for the American Academy of Neurology:
Knopman warns buyers to beware. There is a lot of money out there to be made, and he’s dismayed at how willing consumers and the media are to believe every claim they hear.
“The brain centers seem to be founded on the premise that mental activity done with a proprietary computer is superior to simply reading, staying socially active and discussing current events,” Knopman said. “You can discuss current events on your own and interact with friends, family and community without paying $500 a pop.”
To keep your brain healthy, consider these free, simple tips:
- Exercise and eat right. Nothing has been proved more beneficial to a healthy brain than to keep a healthy body. That means exercise 3 to 4 times a week, and taking at the very least a walk of 30 minutes per day. Eating right means eating right-sized portions (especially at restaurants, leave something on the plate!), avoiding fast food whenever possible, and choosing a healthy eating choice over the one full of fat more often than not.
- Keep good mental health. People who are under less stress or anxiety have a less stressed-out body, which directly relates back to maintaining good physical health. Get help for things you’re not managing well on your own, because the longer you put it off, the worse it’s likely to get.
- Do something new everyday. The brain appears to benefit from novelty and new experience. Even doing a crossword puzzle or sudoku every day helps your brain “exercise” and be involved. In fact, simply reading the daily newspaper (for free, online) helps to work your brain, as you are taking in new information by reading. There’s been no research to suggest that you need a specific brain training software program. While many of them are based upon sound scientific principles, they lack scientific evidence to their specific effectiveness (outside of effectively separating you from some of your money).
- There’s no need to pursue the latest brain fad. You’re just wasting your time and money. That includes all sorts of programs, seminars, trainings, vitamins and supplements. None of them are proven to work and while you may enjoy some benefit from doing them (perhaps from the placebo effect), you’d probably also enjoy some benefit from simply exercising and reading more.
I hope I just saved you and your brain hundreds of dollars. In this tough economy, you’ll need it.
r
Read the full article: As America ages, fitness centers evolve to include head health
13 comments
Hi John,
I totally agree;
Lots of people still do not understand the importance of regular exercise and healthy eating.
I suppose we can only keep trying to convince them. I will use your free simple tips as a reference.
Many thanks
Regards
Dawn Pugh
http://www.everytherapist.com
Agreed.. Physical exercise and proper diet are definitely part of an overall brain fitness program. However, there are documented and peer reviewed studies now that show *certain* brain exercises or tasks can in fact improve ones working memory and fluid intelligence. Check the research done by Susanne Jaeggi and Martin Buschkuehl. Brain games such as that provided online for free by Brainworkshop use this methodology.
Sure, if you’re an 80 year adult and do such tasks everyday (the study looked at thirty-two 80-year-old participants). The study is also valuable for what they did not find — no improvement in episodic memory, no improvement in digit span task, and no improvements that lasted at a one-year followup.
N = 32 is nothing to start basing broad conclusions about the general population’s ability to benefit from such brain games. And something that works in an 80 year old, when memory is already often an issue, is not proven in any manner whatsoever to help a 40 year old who has no memory problems (or is looking to keep his brain “elastic”).
John, you are simply misinformed, and therefore misinforming.
“Since we last wrote on this topic, little has changed. There’s been no new definitive studies showing that brain training programs have any specific benefits to people without a brain disease, such as Alzheimer’s.”
and
“Sure, if you’re an 80 year adult and do such tasks everyday”
Please take the time to read the literature. You seem to have a personal vendetta against computerized cognitive training, which prevents you from understanding what is going on and helping your readers separate reality from hope from hype.
A couple of examples that directly contradict “Since we last wrote on this topic, little has changed. There’s been no new definitive studies showing that brain training programs have any specific benefits to people without a brain disease, such as Alzheimer’s.”
1) The study that GaryD refers to above was based on healthy adults in their 20s (not in their 80s, as you say). See Jaeggi, S. M., Buschkuehl, M., Jonides, J., & Perrig, W. J. (2008). Improving Fluid Intelligence With Training on Working Memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(19), 6829-6833
2)a remarkable recent study by Kramer et al showed all kinds of transfer for healthy adults 60 and over. Basak C, et al “Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?” Psychol Aging 2008; DOI: 10.1037/a0013494.
And we should discuss multiple prior studies, such as ACTIVE, or the literature on cognitive training for driving and flying, whose significance you simply choose to ignore.
I am not responsible for what developers say. I am only responsible for what I say: the best approach for cognitive health, based on what we know today, is multi-pronged, based on a balanced nutrition, cardio physical exercise, stress management and mental stimulation. Computerized cognitive training can play an important role inside the mental stimulation pillar, bringing novelty, variety and challenge, and specific cognitive benefits.
New tools can be useful when used appropriately, they are not magic cures or general solutions – is this really so surprising?
Just one more thought: I am the first person to emphasize that there is much confusion in the field, so we do our best to inform consumers and professionals. A couple of examples:
We published this 10-question Checklist to evaluate any product making brain-related claims:
http://www.sharpbrains.com/resources/10-question-evaluation-checklist/
and we also offer a series of in-depth interview with leading scientists
http://www.sharpbrains.com/resources/neuroscience-interview-series/
Let me also suggest you read Torkel Klingberg’s recent book, The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory. It may help open your eyes.
Thanks for stopping by as always, Alvaro, and plugging your site in this fledgling industry. I have nothing personal, but the studies you cite are typical of the studies that have demonstrated nothing much new of value. There’s a lot of money to be had here, selling people on the newest snake oil that purports to help people in cognitive tasks, while the research shows otherwise.
Let’s look at Kramer’s 34 (18 people in the active game arm) person study of 70-year-olds (media age 69.89, SD =5) from Illinois first. Let’s keep in mind before we begin that 18 people from Illinois are not generalizable to the general population in ANY study.
These 18 people participated in 15 1.5 hour training sessions to achieve their results over a course of 7 to 8 weeks. Researchers measured performance on a set of 10 cognitive tasks typically used to measure memory and perception performance (typically in people who have impairments in these areas).
Out of the 10 tests, only 5 showed a significant difference between the gamers and the control. Two of the remaining 5 showed mixed results (N-back task and the Raven’s showed no main effect, so the researchers went digging), and another looked at only one component of the measure (accuracy but not speed).
Overall, it’s an interesting study. But the only conclusion one draws from it that playing a specific video game (Rise of Nations: Gold Edition) can help people with some executive function tasks — specifically in task switching and improving working memory. But you’d have to play *this game* and play it at least 3-4 hours/week in order to see these effects. And no data on whether the effects are long-lasting or not.
In fact, it’s pretty clear that the researchers did not find as much support for a difference between these two groups as they had intended. So is it truly “remarkable” that if one repeatedly performs a task that emphasizes task switching and swapping out active memory, one improves in measures of task switching and swapping out active memory? The real question not answered by this study is does any of this matter to a person’s everyday functioning in the real world? And would the effects hold up after playing the video game for 7 to 8 months (or years, even!) rather than weeks? Who knows.
Sorry, the Jaeggi study I found was:
Buschkuehl, Martin; Jaeggi, Susanne M.; Hutchison, Sara; Perrig-Chiello, Pasqualina; Däpp, Christoph; Müller, Matthias; Breil, Fabio; Hoppeler, Hans; Perrig, Walter J. (2008). Impact of working memory training on memory performance in old-old adults. Psychology and Aging, 23(4), 743-753.
The study you are referring to is this one:
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/19/6829.full?sid=447036e5-b1ec-46ac-bb79-b0b223e61136
70 participants, mean age 25.6 years old, 34 in the active training task. The active training task group was broken into 4 different groups who got 8, 12, 17 or 19 sessions of training. Both control groups and the “active training” groups had significant improvement on the IQ test (because of test/re-test effects).
This study is indeed interesting for the effects shown, but it’s hampered by the measure used to test for “fluid intelligence” — a German IQ test. It’s difficult to evaluate one’s measures when they aren’t in your ordinary textbooks so you can’t determine whether they are robust, reliable measures of what they purport to measure. Efforts trying to learn more about the BOMAT were unsuccessful, as standard literature searches turned up little. This is my lack of knowledge more than anything, yet it does give me a brief pause, since knowing your measures is an important part of understanding and interpreting research.
However, Sternberg, in a commentary, noted the limitations of the study better than I could:
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/19/6791.full
And you know this is a “valuable study” because the makers of brain software already are citing it as proof that their own programs are “scientifically proven:”
http://www.mindsparkebrainfitnesspro.com/
And there’s the rub. These studies are being done in laboratories, for brief periods of time, with specific protocols and tests. As we said in the original article, nobody’s actually researched the brain programs themselves (which may or may not at all be like the cognitive tests given), nor has anyone done any type of longitudinal study that shows these effects are nothing more than temporary.
Jaeggi’s study is indeed more interesting than most because of its demonstration of a transfer effect from performing a specific type of task to improving one’s fluid intelligence. But since this study goes against years of prior understandings about intelligence, it really needs to be replicated, expanded, and used with more traditional IQ measures before we can start generalizing from its results. And of course, that connection to the real-world is still missing (does this actually *help* people in their daily lives, or does it only help people on theoretical construct scores?).
I have nothing against cognitive research showing advances in “brain training” if people don’t then turn them around to market their own unproven software. My main concern is when people manipulate research findings to make broad statements and generalizations about all people when these studies have — to date — been done on very small groups of people.
I think the research in this area is exciting and holds a lot of potential. To date, however, most of that potential has been hyped far beyond what the data show, and for that reason, we remain skeptical about the benefits of most “brain training” programs on the market today.
Hello John,
Let me start with 3-4 points where it seems we agree:
1) “I think the research in this area is exciting and holds a lot of potential”
2) “To date, however, most of that potential has been hyped far beyond what the data show”. And the main party for this hype, in my view, has been NPR and their fundraising pledge based on a promise to “rejuvenate your brain 10 years”.
3) A good number of developers are also trying to benefit from a “halo”-effect without doing their own research.
4) We probably also agree on this: the concept of “brain age” makes no sense. And the reason why I find is so misleading, when presented as science, is because it implies the interventions are a) universal, for everyone, b) general solutions, for all goals people have. We have tried to debunk this, including articles such as
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2008/06/24/brain-age-posit-science-and-brain-training-topics/
Now, where we seem to disagree, and it is my perception that you are basing very strong claims on your personal prejudices and not on published evidence, are the following points:
5) Are you really saying cognitive training is snake oil? You seen to, which would probably be the least sound statement I have ever read in PsychCentral.
6) When you talk about a “new industry that appears virtually out of nowhere” you basically show that you are less informed about neuropsychology, human factors and cognitive science in general than you believe you are.
7) You opt to pooh-pooh Kramer’s paper by suggesting he and his team went on a fishing expedition. Kramer, a very reputed scientist, who has published some of the best meta-analysis on the impact of physical exercise. You seem to take many liberties with people’s motivations and integrity when you don’t agree with them – as I have experienced myself in the past.
8) Where is the evidence that supports your very strong claim that for “you”, no matter who “you” are and what “you” already do (so, here you are stating something universal and general), going out for a walk is the single best thing you can do and everything else is a waste of money and time? citations, please? just to show the absurdity of your claim – would you say this to a professional athlete? You are basically falling into the same NPR trap.
9) Similarly, where is the evidence that supports your claim that all you need in terms of mental stimulation is to do one more crossword puzzle, or to read the paper one more day? this seems to contradict so many things we know, that I don’t even know where to start the education process.
In short, I agree that, as in any new field, we should differentiate reality from hope from hype.
You choose to scream, Fire!, Snake Oil!, Stop the Thieves!
I choose to provide information, and to proactively help the field become more rational, better structured, more research-based, more transparent to consumers and professionals. I suggest once more you read Torkel Klingberg’s book – could be a great start for you.
Sadly Alvaro, we’ll going to have to just agree to disagree once again. If all you provided was “information,” your site would give a balanced view of new research in this area, and ask challenging (or heck, I’d even settle for intellectually interesting) questions of the researchers you interview.
You do provide a kind of “information,” but it is biased in favor of the industry (which, again, is not surprising). I’m happy to provide an alternative view to your unbridled optimism about the mainstream software being marketed to people under the guide of “scientifically-proven” when, in fact, it is not.
My criticism of Kramer’s research is a perfect example of information you didn’t mention (or glossed over) in your discussion of his study. How can you draw any generalized conclusions from a study of 34 people, where half the measurements they used showed no effect, and half of the remaining measures were decidedly mixed? You can’t, unless you have few critical thinking skills or don’t understand how to analyze a research study’s actual data (and not just the authors’ conclusions).
And you don’t have to just take my word on it… Researchers at Lifespan hospitals found a similar hype for these products:
http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/02/10/are-brain-exercises-mainly-hype/4009.html
I find it amusing that this page has 2 boxes with 12 links to the Lumosity Brain Training Games salespage, right there in the right sidebar, under the big IMPROVE YOUR BRAIN heading….