Brain training or not?One constant presence in game sales charts, Nintendo’s Brain Training has always been considered and promoted as a real tool which stimulates the memory, rejuvenates the brain and keeps it “fit”. Apparently, all the claims are nothing but exaggerations (not to call them lies) – actually, such games do more harm than good, a recent study discovered.

Alain Lieury, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Rennes, tested if Brain Training games have any positive effect of 67 ten years-old kids. He split them into four groups: two of the groups played Nintendo’s Brain Training for seven days, another group did puzzles with pencils and paper, and the fourth just went to school as normal.

The results were impressive: children using the Nintendo DS system failed to show any significant improvement in memory tests, despite showing a 19 percent increase in mathematics skills (same increase was recorded by the “pencil and paper” group, while the “school” one showed an 18 percent increase in their maths skills). The “school” kids showed an increase in logic tests by 20 percent, while “pencil and paper” recorded the same increase as the Brain Training players: 10%. However, the strangest result came from the memory testing, where “pencil and paper” kids showed a whooping 33% increase, while Nintendo players’ memory skills dropped 17 percent!

“The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it’s fine, but it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test.,” said Professor Lieury to the Times. So could it be true that all these Brain Training games are nothing but a scam?

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