How do I know if computer-based brain fitness programs work?

Here is ques­tion nine of 25 from Brain Fit­ness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Ques­tions. To down­load the com­plete ver­sion, please click here.

Ques­tion:
How do I know if com­put­er-based brain fit­ness pro­grams work?

Key Points:

• Research the prod­uct and the names involved with the prod­uct to see what has been published.
• Look for arti­cles in high cal­iber, peer-reviewed journals.
• Ask for referrals.
• Assess­ments done before you begin and then after your train­ing allow you to track your performance.
• Observe your­self. How do you feel after doing the train­ing? Do you feel sharper?

Answer:
Always ask the questions:

What does the spe­cif­ic pro­gram look like? How many hours for how many weeks will it take to accom­plish what goals? Some pro­grams leave it so open-end­ed that it is unclear how users are sup­posed to get what ben­e­fits. The pro­gram should be clear and easy to fol­low with a clear sense of where you are head­ed and how you are get­ting there.

Who designed the pro­gram? What are their cre­den­tials? Look for the sci­en­tists, uni­ver­si­ties, and/or hos­pi­tals behind the pro­gram. A good soft­ware pro­gram will have many peo­ple involved, and par­tic­u­lar­ly some sci­en­tists or physi­cians to be sure it works.

Has the pro­gram been test­ed in rig­or­ous sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies? Peer-reviewed aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals have a lengthy sys­tem involved to try to ensure stud­ies are done eth­i­cal­ly and are valid. Use a search engine like PubMed to find the names of the sci­en­tists behind the program.

Do any ben­e­fits trans­fer to real life and to our cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties? Effec­tive brain fit­ness pro­grams trans­fer into an expand­ed “mental muscle” or cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty that will help you in real-life chal­lenges beyond the spe­cif­ic game you learned.

Do exist­ing users rec­om­mend it? Some pro­grams are more user-friend­ly than oth­ers. Giv­en that we are talk­ing about fit­ness pro­grams, not med­ical inter­ven­tions, the pro­grams must place rea­son­able demands for you to com­plete, oth­er­wise you sim­ply may not fin­ish it and not reap the benefits.

Do you notice an improve­ment in your­self after using it? If in doubt, try it and see for your­self. Do you feel sharp­er and more men­tal­ly fit since try­ing the soft­ware? If you are fol­low­ing the guide­lines, you should be able to notice a dif­fer­ence in your abilities.

Fur­ther Reading

• Mah­ncke HW, Con­nor BB, Appel­man J, et al. Mem­o­ry enhance­ment in healthy old­er adults using a brain plas­tic­i­ty-based train­ing pro­gram: a ran­dom­ized, con­trolled study. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006;103:12523–8.
• Scarmeas N, Stern Y. Cog­ni­tive reserve and lifestyle. J Clin Exp Neu­ropsy­chol. 2003;25:625–33.
• Tar­ra­ga L, Boa­da M, Modi­nos G, et al. A ran­domised pilot study to assess the effi­ca­cy of an inter­ac­tive, mul­ti­me­dia tool of cog­ni­tive stim­u­la­tion in Alzheimer’s dis­ease. J Neu­rol Neu­ro­surg Psy­chi­a­try. 2006;77:1116–21.
• Willis SL, Tennst­edt SL, Mar­siske M, et al. Long-term effects of cog­ni­tive train­ing on every­day func­tion­al out­comes in old­er adults. JAMA. 2006;296:2805–14.