brain training claims

January Update: The Federal Trade Commission orders Focus Education to stop making unsubstantiated brain training claims

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brain-activity.

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Jan­u­ary e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a wealth of brain health insights, neu­ro­science research reports, a land­mark action by the Fed­er­al Trade Commission…and some quick brain teasers. Enjoy!

New research:

New think­ing:

New tools:

Final­ly, when you have a few min­utes you may want to try these quick brain teasers to test your cog­ni­tive skills…and your cog­ni­tive bias­es.

Have a great month of February!

The Federal Trade Commission orders Focus Education to stop making unsubstantiated brain training claims

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Federal-Trade-Commission.

Mak­ers of Jun­gle Rangers Com­put­er Game for Kids Set­tle FTC Charges that They Deceived Con­sumers with Base­less “Brain Train­ing” Claims (Fed­er­al Trade Commission):

“A Texas com­pa­ny and its offi­cers must stop mak­ing unsub­stan­ti­at­ed claims that their com­put­er game, Jun­gle Rangers, per­ma­nent­ly improves children’s focus, mem­o­ry, atten­tion, behav­ior, and school per­for­mance, includ­ing for chil­dren with atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD), under a Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion set­tle­ment [Read more…] about The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion orders Focus Edu­ca­tion to stop mak­ing unsub­stan­ti­at­ed brain train­ing claims

Checklist to Evaluate Brain Training and Brain Health Claims

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SharpBrains ChecklistTo assist those look­ing for ideas, prod­ucts and ser­vices in the brain training/ health area, either as hol­i­day gifts or New Year Res­o­lu­tions, let us share this resource: Sharp­Brains’ Check­list to eval­u­ate Brain Train­ing and Brain Health claims, includ­ing Ten Ques­tions to Choose the Right Brain Fit­ness Pro­gram— and a brief expla­na­tion of why each ques­tion is important.

10-Question Checklist to Assess Products Making Brain Fitness & Training Claims

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To help con­sumers and pro­fes­sion­als nav­i­gate through the grow­ing num­ber of pro­grams mak­ing “brain fit­ness” or “brain train­ing” claims, we have pub­lished this Sharp­Brains SharpBrains ChecklistCheck­list:

10 Ques­tions to Choose the Right Brain Fit­ness Pro­gram — and a brief expla­na­tion of why each ques­tion is important:

* 1. Are there sci­en­tists, ide­al­ly neu­ropsy­chol­o­gists, and a sci­en­tif­ic advi­so­ry board behind the program? 

Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gists spe­cial­ize in mea­sur­ing and under­stand­ing human cog­ni­tion and brain struc­ture and function.

* 2. Are there pub­lished, peer-reviewed sci­en­tif­ic papers in PubMed writ­ten by those sci­en­tists? How many?

PubMed is a ser­vice of the U.S. Nation­al Library of Med­i­cine that includes mil­lions of cita­tions sci­ence jour­nals. If a sci­en­tist has not pub­lished a paper that appears in that data­base, he or she can­not make sci­en­tif­ic claims.

* 3. What are the spe­cif­ic ben­e­fits claimed for using this pro­gram? What spe­cif­ic cog­ni­tive skill is the pro­gram training?

Some pro­grams present the ben­e­fits in such a neb­u­lous way that it is impos­si­ble to tell if they will have any results or not…“brain train­ing” itself is a lim­it­ed ben­e­fit, because activ­i­ties like gar­den­ing or learn­ing a new lan­guage pro­vide “brain train­ing too”…you need to see some­thing more spe­cif­ic, like what cog­ni­tive or emo­tion­al skill that pro­gram is aimed at.
* 4. Does the pro­gram tell me what part of my brain or which cog­ni­tive skill I am exer­cis­ing, and is there an inde­pen­dent assess­ment to mea­sure my progress?

The ques­tion is whether the improve­ment expe­ri­enced in the pro­gram will trans­fer into real life. For that to hap­pen we need assess­ments that are dis­tinct from the exer­cis­es them­selves. [Read more…] about 10-Ques­tion Check­list to Assess Prod­ucts Mak­ing Brain Fit­ness & Train­ing Claims