Brain-training games are a “waste of time,” say researchers – good diet and exercise are still the best ways to improve cognition

( Natural News ) Doing word puzzles and number games might be a good way to pass the time, but they’re not necessarily the best approach for boosting cognition, according to new research published in the journal Neuropsychologia . Scientists from Canada found that people who spend countless hours playing Sudoku or doing word puzzles probably aren’t going to achieve the IQ boost they’re hoping for – especially when such games are played on electronic devices like tablets and smartphones that are known to damage the brain . For the research, the team, led by Dr. Bobby Stojanoski from the Brain and Mind Institute at Western University in London, Ontario, evaluated 72 participants divided into two groups. One group was tasked with completing roughly 13 hours of so-called “brain training” games, while the other group was evaluated as a control. “After they completed that very lengthy period of brain training, we tested them on two quite similar tests to determine whether the brain training transferred to improvements on these untrained tests,” explained Dr. Stojanoski about the methodology. In the end, however, there were no observable differences in cognition between the two groups. No matter the number of “brain games” the active participants completed, all of the participants from both groups performed roughly equally on follow-up cognition assessments, suggesting that brain-boosting games and puzzles don’t actually work. “We hypothesized if you get really, really good at one test by training for a very long time, maybe then you will get improvement on tests that are quite similar,” Dr. Stojanoski added about what he and his team expected to find as part of their experiments. 100% organic essential oil sets now available for your home and personal care, including Rosemary, Oregano, Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, Clary Sage and more, all 100% organic […]

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