do brain training games really make us
smarter or do they just make us feel
smarter Anthony here for D news people
are really into these brain training
games you know the ones right you sign
up for some website or you download an
app where you play these puzzle games
and they increase your intelligence and
brain health and they help you fight off
mental decline but do they actually so
researchers at the University of Iowa
say yes they did a study of 681 people
over the age of 50 because 680 wouldn't
have worked all the participants were
given some mental tests then some of
them were given a specially designed
game to play and then some of them
weren't they were all given mental tests
again 8 weeks later and then a year
later and the ones that played the game
for at least 10 hours showed about 70%
Improvement in their mental processing
that's pretty good but other studies
haven't gotten the same results see it
all depends on what you consider mental
processing right more in-depth Studies
have shown that yes a special specialzed
game might make somebody improve in the
tasks that the game is teaching but it
doesn't translate to overall brain
health so if you're training in a game
that makes you memorize a sequence of
colors you're just going to get better
at memorizing sequences of colors it's
not going to make you somehow better at
reading or math or even finding your
keys so they're probably not doing you a
ton of good but then again they're not
doing you any harm either right if you
like them and they make you feel smarter
who cares if anything maybe it'll give
you the confidence to take on bigger
mental tasks and those will make you
smarter uh but it turns out that it's
actually more likely to do the opposite
spending 10 hours a week on brain
training and then not getting better at
complex stuff could actually hurt your
self-esteem and make you less likely to
take on intellectual challenges and for
older adults who need to keep their
brain activity up the most they could be
doing these games instead of things that
actually improve their health I mean
even a little physical exercise can be
good for their cognitive skills and it'
be time better spent so we've got
conflicting reports here but it seems
like the answer is if you like brain
training games play them but don't
expect quantifiable results from them
and don't use them as your only mental
exercise I actually really like games
like brain age whether they're helping
me or not do you play any brain training
games and do they make you feel smarter
let me know and subscribe for more D
news