Written by Kristie McNealy M.D.
There's no doubt that a lot of people want to be smarter, and most adults hope to keep their brains sharp as they age so that they can live active, independent lives for longer. To that end, television and internet ads advertising software and games that promise to improve "brain age" are flooding the marketplace. The question is, do they really work?
We know that practice can improve performance on specific memory tasks and intelligence tests. For example, people who practice IQ tests can improve their performance. This improvement comes from becoming better at taking the test itself, and not an improvement in overall intelligence
In fact, many scientists have believed that the only way to improve mental performance was to practice the exact task being tested, a process that would have very limited application to everyday life.
For example, a study which looked at cognitive training in the elderly, divided participants into four groups, which received either training in verbal memory, reasoning or mental processing speed, or no training at all. The study found that the people who received training improved their performance in the specific area their training addressed, and this improvement lasted for the entire two-year study period. Unfortunately, over that time, there wasn't any noticeable improvement in everyday life functions. (1)
Then, scientists out of the University of Michigan and University of Bern released a paper last year which seemed to turn those theories on their head. Their research found that people who trained their brains on a specific complex memory task actually improved their IQ scores.
The study involved 70 volunteers. Half of them were given daily mental training exercises, and half were not. The mental training exercises lasted about 25 minutes per day, and were a version of the "n-back" test. Basically, the volunteers were shown a series of squares in different positions on a computer screen. They were asked to decide whether the square they were seeing was in the same position as one shown a certain number back in the series. At the same time, they also listened to spoken letters, and had to indicate when a letter was the same as one said a certain number of letters earlier.
The results of the training exercises were analyzed after each session, and if the person performed well, the exercises became more difficult. If performance was poor, they became easier. The brain training sessions lasted between 8 and 19 days. At the beginning and end of the training, all of the people in the study were given standard intelligence tests.
Overall, people who participated in the brain training exercises improved their performance on the intelligence tests, and had significantly higher scores than the people who didn't participate in the brain training exercises. In addition, the the more days people performed the training exercises, the more their performance improved.
The exciting thing about this study is that it gave some of the first evidence that people can improve their problem solving ability by practicing unrelated tasks, and that more practice leads to more improvement. It also shows that people of varying intelligence levels all saw benefit from the training. What we don't know is how long this improvement lasts, or how much additional training would continue to help improve intelligence scores. To that end, the team who performed this study are working on longterm studies on improving memory.
More recently, one of the researchers involved in the earlier study of brain training in the elderly, worked on a study that showed that speed process training prevented a decline in driving performance in older adults. The study looked at adults with poor performance on a specific vision test, useful field of view (UFOV), which predicts driving performance. Some of those adults received cognitive speed process training. In the end, researchers found that while driving performance worsened over a three-year period of time in adults with poor UFOV, speed process training prevented that decline, creating an obvious positive impact on the everyday lives of those seniors. (3)
So, what does this mean for all those brain training programs out there, which claim to improve intelligence or decrease so-called "brain age"?
We now know that certain kinds of brain training can improve life, as well as improving certain measures of intelligence. The question is, which types of training work, and what types of problems will they address.
One important thing to remember, is that in order for brain training to work, a certain amount of concentration and motivation to improve is required. You can't just go through the motions, because real attention needs to be put in to the exercises. So, while playing with brain training software might be fun, if you aren't really concentrating and putting in some effort while you're playing it, you're unlikely to see a lot of improvement.
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References:
1. Ball K, et al. (2002). Effects of cognitive training interventions with older adults: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 288(18):2271-2281.
2. Jaeggie SM, et al. (2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. PNAS. 105(19): 6829-6833. doi[1]:
10.1073[1]pnas.0801268105
3. Edwards et al. (2009). The longitudinal impact of cognitive speed of processing training on driving mobility. Gerontologist. 49(4):485-494. doi:10.1093/geront/gnp042
