More about the ground-breaking research by CBSU scientists Dr Owen, Dr Hampshire, and Dr Grahn.
Dr Adrian Owen, co-author of the research from the Medical Research Council said: "Brain training, or the quest to improve brain function through regular use of computer tests, is a multimillion pound industry, yet up until now there's been a real lack of robust evidence to show it really works.
"Our findings will no doubt surprise millions of people worldwide who do some form of brain training every day in the belief that 'exercising' their brain makes them better at everyday thinking tasks. In one of our computer games that tests memory by assessing how many numbers could be remembered by players, we found it would take almost four years of playing brain training games regularly each week to remember just one extra digit!"
This was a full clinical trial that allowed researchers to investigate brain training as a means of treating or preventing degenerative brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. The findings published today, however, are from participants aged 18 to 60.
The brain training experiment is now closed to new brain trainers. However, scientists are asking all trainers aged 60 and over to continue training for the full 12 months of the study so that they can carry out further research into the group most at risk from degenerative brain disorders.
The study involved experts from the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, the Alzheimer's Society and the BBC. The research is published in the journal Nature and the researchers were part-funded by the Medical Research Council as part of its ongoing commitment to advancing knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases.
Brain Training Test Details
- Participants were split randomly into three groups – two of these groups practiced six training games (different to the benchmarking tests) for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week. The third group was a control who used the internet to answer general knowledge questions, but did not practice computer-based brain training at all.
- Group one's training focussed on reasoning, planning and problem-solving abilities. Group two was tested on a broader range of cognitive functions similar to those typically found in commercial brain training devices.
- Both of the groups that brain-trained regularly improved on the benchmarking tests, but no more than the control group that had not undergone any computer-based training. In fact, improvements on two of the tests were actually greater in the control group
- The difficulty of the training tasks increased as participants improved to maximise the benefits of the training sessions and on average, participants completed 24.47 training sessions each.
- The benchmarking tests can be tried for free at http://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com
- Details of the results will be shown on BBC One at 9pm on Wednesday 21 April in Can You Train Your Brain? A Bang Goes the Theory Special. To find out more about the popular science series, Bang Goes The Theory (BBC One, Mondays, 7.30pm), visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/bang
- For any queries relating to the BBC programme Bang Goes The Theory please contact: Victoria Asare-Archer, BBC Publicity on +44 (0)208 225 8399 / + 44 (0)7590 306826, victoria.asare-archer@bbc.co.uk.
- Putting brain training to the test is published in Nature, 20 April, 2010.
- For almost 100 years the Medical Research Council has improved the health of people in the UK and around the world by supporting the highest quality science. The MRC invests in world-class scientists. It has produced 29 Nobel Prize winners and sustains a flourishing environment for internationally recognised research. The MRC focuses on making an impact and provides the financial muscle and scientific expertise behind medical breakthroughs, including the first antibiotic penicillin, the structure of DNA and the lethal link between smoking and cancer. Today MRC funded scientists tackle research into the major health challenges of the 21st century. www.mrc.ac.uk
- The Medical Research Council's Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge investigates fundamental human cognitive processes, such as attention, memory, language and emotion. Experimental techniques include state of the art brain imaging technology, neuropsychological studies of patient populations, computational simulations and behavioural experiments on healthy volunteers.