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| A no-brainer |
| Anand Sankar / New Delhi Mar 01, 2009, 00:07 IST |
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There is new research that claims that there is nothing you can do to improve your noggin.
Almost everyone succumbs to the temptation of doing anything to make their brain “work better”. This is especially true in India as the annual examination season draws near. Anxious students try anything from Vedic mathematics and meditation to brain-improvement puzzles and even medication to get that extra edge.
Now a consumer watchdog in the UK has rubbished claims that one can “train the brain” at all.
A device that has been gaining in popularity recently is the Nintendo DS, which features a brain-training game developed by Japanese neuroscientist Dr Ryuta Kawashima. It makes users navigate a set of questions and puzzles to determine their “brain age” and tries to make the brain’s age younger.
One of Nintendo’s claims has been that playing the game helps improve bloodflow to part of the brain called the frontal cortex and thereby improves “practical intelligence”. Also it is said to specially help the elderly remain sharp.
Which?, a consumer watchdog magazine, has trashed these claims by claiming that the game is only “as good as” surfing the Internet or chatting with a few friends.
The brain game, which has received celebrity endorsements from Julie Walters, Nicole Kidman and Girls Aloud, was evaluated by a team of British neuroscientists.
The panel included Dr Chris Bird, a clinical neuroscientist at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London, Dr Paul Howard-Jones, senior lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, Bristol University, and Dr Adrian Owen, a senior scientist and assistant director at the Medical Research Council’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge. All three academics concluded “there was no evidence that an increased flow had any functional impact on your life whatsoever”.
But it must be added as a note of caution that none of the claims — by Nintendo or the three critical scientists — have been supported by peer-reviewed research in a recognised scientific journal.
Nintendo is unconcerned. The game has sold more than 90 million units worldwide even in times of an economic slowdown. The company claims the game is “fun”, which cannot be said of alternatives such as solving a crossword.
Martyn Hocking, editor at Which? magazine, meanwhile said: “If people enjoy using these games, then they should continue to do so — that’s a no-brainer.”
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