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CA NEWS
By Josh Peterson
If you’re a tech whiz, you’ve probably
heard of brain-training games that
challenge the mind and test the limits
of the imagination. They are certainly
entertaining, and they claim to stave off
ailments related to cognitive decline like
Alzheimer’s and dementia. But do they
work?
There is a lot of solid evidence that
early-life learning and even mid-life
learning prevents and/or delays the
onset of cognitive decline. According to
the Alzheimer’s Association, age-related
drops in mental acuity may occur
because the connections between brain
cells are altered and weakened. It is
believed that education might strengthen
those connections. The University of
Cambridge reports that every extra
year of education reduces your risk of
dementia by 11 percent. However, a
high level of education is also linked to
a more favorable socioeconomic status
and a healthier lifestyle, both of which
have also been correlated to a reduction
in the risk of cognitive decline. A direct
connection between learning and cognitive
fortitude came in the form of a large-scale
study in Brain: A Journal of Neurology
(July, 2010) published by Oxford
University. Researchers determined
that well-educated people who suffered
from dementia were able to cope with the
disease and compensate for it far better
than those with little schooling.
That means brain-training games have,
at least, one foot planted fully in science
fact, but do they work? Well, the answer is
somewhat inconclusive. There even seems
to be a bit of controversy raging in the
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a group of 70 scientists released a paper
that said there was no evidence that brain-
training games worked. A group of 130
scientists published a rebuttal, pointing out
the ample body of peer-reviewed evidence.
12 | SUNRAYS AUGUST 2017
TECH FEATURE
Brain
Training
Games
Do they prevent dementia?
Advocates for brain-training received a
windfall of good news in the summer of
2016. The Advanced Cognitive Training for
Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE)
study, funded by the National Institute
for the Aging, was released, a ten-year
undertaking that examined the effects
of brain-training on over 2,800 seniors
with an average age of 73 who were in
good cognitive health. By the end of the
decade-long analysis, participants who
received brain-training from commercially
available sources reduced their risk of
cognitive decline by a third to nearly one
half (depending on frequency and type
of brain-training) when compared to the
control group who received absolutely zero
brain-training. A long-term, quality study
RIWKDWVL]HLVVLJQLÀFDQWDQGKDUGWRLJQRUH Secondly, there is good evidence that
It received widespread media coverage.
But by the fall of 2016, the brain-training
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published in Psychological Science in the
Public Interest which basically stated that,
yes, these studies have shown positive
results, but they’ve been asking the wrong
questions and that brain-training games
only really make people better at brain-
training games. They have displayed little
effectiveness for real-world applications.
This paper, too, was circulated extensively
by the national media.
Ironically, trying to decide which side to
believe became the real brain teaser. How
do we, as laypeople, make an informed
decision about brain-training games
while swarms of scientists do battle in
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the press? Well, there are three things
that we should remember.
First, science is a process. It can take
years and years for something so
complicated to reach near unanimous
consensus (and very few things will ever
reach full consensus, by the way). The
back and forth between the two groups of
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and will, hopefully, in the long run lead to
solid, practical non-controversial results.
keeping the mind sharp seems to delay,
prevent or offset cognitive decline. If
brain-training games provide mental
not to use them. However, if over time they
become rote or easy, they likely won’t help
much. It is the challenge that’s useful, not
necessarily the game.
Finally, brain-training games might help,
but they aren’t a magic bullet. They may
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but they aren’t an impenetrable bulwark
against it. There’s better evidence that a
healthy diet and regular exercise are far
superior at keeping the mind healthy, and
a smart person hedges their bets.
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