Brain Age Won't Actually Beef Up Your Prefrontal Cortex

Posted 01/30/2009 at 2:47pm | by Andy Salisbury

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According to a recent study at the University of Rennes, Brittany, Brain Age’s mind workout is no better than playing Scrabble or completing Sudoku puzzles.

The study, which was conducted on a group of 67 10-year-old children, had four groups; the first two did a seven-week memory course using the Nintendo DS, the third group completed puzzles using just pencil and paper and the fourth group did no extra work outside of their school curriculum. According to the results, children who trained on the DS didn’t show any significant improvements in memory tests.

“The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it’s fine, but it would be charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test,” stated Alain Lieury, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Rennes.

Despite this research, it’s expected that Brain Age will still sell very well thanks to Nintendo’s clever marketing, and gigantic casual gamer crowd (many of whom will probably never see this study).

Image Credit: Nintendo