I couldn’t help but notice the new TV advertisements for a service called “Lumosity,” a company that suggests you can “reclaim your brain” by simply playing their brain training games (at only $15/month). Sounds like fun!
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve written about these kinds of programs (more than once).
So I checked out Lumosity’s research backing to see if anything new has come down the pike to support the use of these kinds of cognitive games to help ordinary adults — not senior citizens or others suffering from mild cognitive impairment. In a nutshell, is there a solid research base to suggest that you can improve your brain’s fitness with these programs?
The answer should surprise no one.
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I am not surprised there is no real evidence to support this kind of thing would be helpful. Still disappointing. I keep reading about neuroplasticity as it relates to mental illness, specifically depression. I’ve been battling all my life with depression & social anxiety & medications haven’t helped. Part of me is afraid that after 2 decades of messing around up there with my neurotransmitters, I might have ended up worse off.
If the brain’s wiring can’t be trained significantly by engaging in games geared to increasing memory, cognitive abilities, etc., it seems to me that it will be even harder to make any changes in my patterns of thought/neural pathways in order to ever feel better. And “exercises” for trying to retrain negative thinking are to me a lot harder & vague.
I guess all I am trying to say is that how do you tap into that neuroplasticity for emotions, if it doesn’t even work for something as simple as trying to improve one’s ability to say be more observant or better at using logic?
I don’t even know if I am making sense. Hopefully someone out there understands what I am getting at.
(receding back into the mental fog)
Dr. Grohol, I must say that your article should be read by all of the 78 million baby boomers now turning 65 — at a rate of 10,000 new seniors every day in this country. As head of PsychCentral, your voice on this issue comes at a time when the so-called U.S. “Brain Fitness Industry” (commercial products, programs and supplements)is projected to soon reach $500 million in sales/yr.
My concern is not so much that younger generations are buying “the snake oil” with its “suggested scientific” claims, but that many of the present 40+ million seniors in this country are susceptible to such marketing “assurances” in place of authoritative, independent research. In this country we do such a poor job of regulating the commercial brain health claims.
In our retirement community of Green Valley, Arizona our educational programs are being focused on senior brain consumer education. Our Senior Brain Education Network is enlightening those in our retirement community with programs featuring university neuroscientists, psychologists and medical specialists. Over 800 of our seniors have attended two major programs in the past several years. We created this local Network so more seniors learn enough about brain health science to make more informed decisions given the mushrooming commercial marketing boom. Alzheimer’s is a widespread epidemic among those who live in retirement communities. Many more seniors could access far more basic brain health information to help make educated consumer decisions about improving or maintaining the inevitable age-related changes in brain processes.
The recently announced National Alzheimer’s Plan fails to adequately recognize our enormous public brain health education gap among those most at risk of Alzheimer’s. How many seniors have a basic understanding of the aging brain’s normal neurodegenerative processes that are common within our elderly population? Without a robust initiative to educate seniors to learn more about brain health through recognized academic and government sources, our uninformed elderly are prime targets for the commercial sector’s alure of simple, “wondrous solutions”.
Too many seniors fear even being evaluated professionally. They lack basic baseline information to help understand where they stand in terms of cognitive health status. Too few seniors know about independent brain health research on lifestyle changes that don’t cost a penny. Without more research being reported to our aging population, seniors will continue to seek “magical” commercial solutions, rather than becoming aware of what they can do for themselves to take control of maintaining brain health throughout later life.
Dear John,
Fantastic article. I couldn’t agree more. Here is an Op-Ed I wrote for the New York Times on this topic:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/opinion/sunday/iq-points-for-sale-cheap.html
Also, my colleagues and I have tried to replicate the Jaeggi et al. (2008) study, with no success. Our paper has been accepted for publication at the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. Please contact me and I’ll be glad to send you a copy. My e-mail is hambric3@msu.edu.
Best Regards,
David Z. (Zach) Hambrick
Brain games are very important for improving brain memory. Many people reclaim their brain by playing brain training games. One must go with this!
I’m not sure if these games help or not, but I play the math games more often than not. After being out of school for 20 some years and not doing any type of math, I do see great improvement in that area. This was great trying to refresh my mental areas.Do the other games work as stated.I am not sure, And I’m really not sure if I will sign back up for a 3rd year, but saying this is snake oil. I’m not sure about that either. The famous saying is: use your brain or lose it. I really do think it brought my mind back in time a little bit.
Great post, snake oils always sells this is just XX and XXI century version. I believe that the only data on self administered activity that improves brain function is on aerobic physical exercise. It increases production of NGF (nerve growth factor) in the brain thus can lead to formation of new connections between brain cells.
All the negative info given on these articles has me wondering, have any of you tried it?
I know for sure, some of it works. You do have to keep it up or you slide back to where you were. I’m not a neurologist I’m just the average guy. I believe there is a problem when I read articles that say it shouldn’t work it can’t work because the studies say it can’t work. I know it positively does work. I think training anything will increase ability that’s a no brain er for me.
I can do math better faster,read faster my vocabulary is getting larger. It’s like doing crossword puzzles the more you do the better you get. It doesn’t do everything it says it will do but there is some major changes. All I can say is try it. It may not work for you because it’s geared for the average person. If your too smart for it then it’s not going to help. It would be like me trying to teach Bill Gates about computers.
I’m a licensed therapist in Boynton Beach Fl. I specialize in anxiety, PTSD using hypnosis, emdr and cbt. Lately I’ve been thinking about using the phrase training the brain. When self hypnosis and cbt are practiced it can for example train the Brain to go from dwelling into the moment. I thing it sounds better than psychotherapy.
That kind of training the brain is different than the site you mentioned. I agree training the brain is complex and not simply playing games.
The Gift That Keeps On Giving…For Lumosity
My Wife got a friend a gift on a 6 month subscription to Lumosity and put it on her credit car. 6 months later, Lumosity auto-rebilled the friend but on my wife’s credit car. The friend reported growing disinterested in Lumosity and said it didn’t help, so never went back to the site after a month.
Many months later, when we found out we’d be auto-billed for the friend, we contacted Lumosity, but they said “Sorry, but NO.” Not only did the training not work, we were fleeced in the process. Our brains have now been thoroughly trained – never to trust snake oil charlatans like Lumosity again.
I happened upon this fascinating assault on Lumosity when just searching around to see if it might be worth trying it out at a discounted price. The free games are entertaining exercises, but I’m a cheapskate that’s not quickly inclined to fork over money for things like this.
Also being a facts-based guy, the lack of in-depth scientific study is somewhat alarming. Yet then the author further substantiates his skepticism by saying playing word games is just good fun, implying implying there is no tangible cognitive value in playing games like Scrabble or Crosswords.
Whereas the presence of proof can prove, the absence of that proof doesn’t disprove. Alas, the search for reliable information continues. At least I can keep enjoying the free account.