Mental exercises: do they work?

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 21 2010

The study

It has been long believed and aggressively drilled into our brains that computer programs and games that are targeted towards memory enhancement improve memory, mental health, intelligence and prevent age related memory loss and dementia. In a new study such claims have been found to be empty.

According to researchers memory enhancement is mainly due to improvement in cognitive skills. This study published in the reputed journal Nature shows that these brain exercises do not improve cognition.

According to study co-author, Jessica Grahn, a scientist at the Medical and Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, England, “Our brain-training groups got better at the tests they practiced, and the more they practiced, the better they got. But there was no translation to any improvements in general cognitive function.”

This study notes that only some modest benefits can be obtained in terms of cognitive abilities among the pre-school goers and elderly but there is no concrete evidence.

This study involved 11,430 healthy participants online who watched a BBC television science program. They were assessed for their baseline cognitive abilities and then divided into three groups.

One of the groups was given online games related to intelligence, reasoning, logic, planning, problem approach etc.

The second group was given exercises for improvement of short term memory, attention, mathematical and visual-spatial skills. These are main focus of commercially available programs.

The third group was deemed “control” and was allowed to surf the internet to look for answers to general knowledge questions.

The results did not show any special benefits in either group in terms of cognitive skills. Although each group did get proficient at what they were doing.

The market

These mental health improvers have been growing as a market. In North America it commands a $265 million market in 2009. Experts believe that these figures will touch at least $1 billion in five years.

Last year at least $95 million came from people who bought these programs for improvement of mental health. The users range from school children to retired elderly, insurance companies and hospitals alike.

Advocates of brain training

Many have criticised this study saying that the design was imperfect and results inconclusive to draw inferences. According to Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive officer of SharpBrains, the time allotted for the brain exercises was too little. It was 10 minutes three times a day for six weeks.

He said, “It's not brain training…” Ideally cognition transfer “only happens after more than 15 hours of training and where each session lasts at least 30 minutes.” Steven Aldrich, chief executive of Posit Science of San Francisco also said, that the results cannot be true for all brain training exercises.

He said, the “study overreaches in generalizing that since their methods did not work, all methods would not work.” He added that there have been randomized, peer-reviewed studies of weight that have shown benefits of brain exercises.

Torkel Klingberg, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm also said, “This article makes big claims out of a single negative finding.”

He believes that an average of only 3 hours of training may not be sufficient and online participants may not have been fully concentrating on the tasks. He agrees with Aldrich when he says, it “does not mean that cognitive functions cannot be trained, or that all training paradigms lack effect.”