‘Brain training’: does it work?

Last month I wrote about research that’s using brain training as one part of a dementia prevention strategy. But how much difference can it make?

A quick recap: a Finnish study showed that two years of a lifestyle training program resulted in improved brain function and less risk of cognitive impairment.

Similar trials are now taking place in many other countries including Australia where the lifestyle focus will include diet, exercise, and a brain training app called BrainHQ. This was developed over a decade ago by an American professor of neuroscience.

BrainHQ is far from being alone in this field. There are many others including Luminosity and Elevate.

These apps provide cognitive games that are said to boost or maintain brain function through activities designed to improve memory, problem-solving, reasoning, attention, and so forth.

The theory is that we may be able to train our brain function much the same way as we train our bodies by getting fit — i.e. strength and conditioning for the brain.

And we know that brains can be trained. London taxi drivers have often been held up as an example of this.

Before the reliance on GPS and automated instructions, London taxi drivers could navigate the 58,000 streets of London using only their memory. Some still do.

Researchers found that the hippocampus — the part of the brain used for spatial navigation — grew bigger in those taxi drivers than in the rest of us. Their brains had grown fresh neural networks in response to learning their way around the city.

Since the hippocampus shrinks in people with Alzheimer’s, there’s great interest in whether we can learn something about preventing dementia from the taxi drivers.

As a result, some are participating in a study called the Taxi Brains Projects at University College London.

In a way, brain apps are trying to do the equivalent of navigating the streets of London, but right now it’s fair to say the jury’s out on their effectiveness.

Critics argue that the evidence isn’t strong enough to demonstrate that we can improve core brain processes this way. They query the extent to which practicing these skills results in benefits that show up in everyday life.

One reason it’s been hard to clarify how effective the various aspects of brain training might be is that different studies have used different types of training.

It’s also interesting to note that in the US, the Federal Trade Commission — a consumer protection agency under the wing of the US government — has penalised some companies for making misleading and unsubstantiated claims about the capacity of their apps.

None of this means they don’t work. We just don’t have enough evidence yet, and some of them have pretended that they have more evidence than they do.

Learning new things is good for the brain and these apps are certainly one way of doing that.

Maybe they belong under the same broad umbrella as activities such as learning a language or a musical instrument, doing jigsaws, or playing Bridge, Wordle and its spinoffs, or even Sudoku.

We’re reminded over and over that maintaining a healthy brain requires a range of factors: a healthy diet, not too much alcohol, not smoking, regular exercise, sleep, managing our blood pressure, socialising and connecting with others.

But the brain is also an organ that needs to be used, and if you try an app such as BrainHQ and like it, at this stage there’s no reason not to stick with it.

Alternatively, we could turn off our GPS navigation and start learning our way around the streets again.

Image Source: Sam Island