It was almost three years ago that Nintendo's Brain Age hit the DS in America, bringing with it promises of increased mind power, as well as several dozen copycats. Like many others, I was caught up in brain training hysteria in mid-2006, though the novelty of tracking my progress at a handful of mini-games didn't really last more than a few weeks. But I guess in the long run, dropping my regiment of mind exercises didn't matter, now that there's more news of Brain Age's general uselessness as a grey matter stimulant. According to a report from Joystiq, "Consumer group Which assembled a
panel of three neuroscientists to test the ideas that brain training
games improve memory and help prevent dementia. The panel found 'weak'
or no evidence to support the claims."
Of course, it's doubtful that anyone takes the claims (mostly, "for entertainment purposes only") of Brain Age seriously enough that this news will effect their life in any meaningful way. In fact, the intro of the game more or less proves its general valuelessness as a brain trainer; when Dr. Kawashima shows you the amount of prefrontal cortex activity that happens when you engage in one of Brain Age's reading activities, you don't have to be a neuroscientist to realize it might be easier to cut out the middleman and just pick up a book. And if you happen to be a nerd with an interest in how video games make us think (I'm not naming names), you'd know from books like James Paul Gee's What Videogames Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy that video games throw us into environments that require constant decision-making to solve problems, regardless of their content.
Besides, it's really hard to shake the icky aftertaste that comes with any adventure in edutainment.
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