Close Encounters of the Learned Mind

Brain training aims to improve intelligence and quality of life

If you want to get smarter, brain trainers think they can help.

It’s long been debated whether it’s possible to significantly improve intelligence. In recent years, some researchers have speculated that brains can be exercised similarly to the way bodies can be exercised.

The idea is simple: Give people games that exercise specific mental skills, and intelligence will improve.

Following that logic, supporters have proposed that mental training can improve IQ and memory. Some even argue that it can prevent the cognitive decline that often comes with age or due to Alzheimer’s Disease.

Based on that theory, a series of brain games and brain training groups have arisen and received increasing popularity. Lumosity, Cogmed and LearningRx offer brain training, as do countless apps and games.

All of these groups and products hope to improve people’s lives through exercising the brain, but several different approaches exist. Some offer a game or puzzle while others, including LearningRx, offer in-person training.

“What we do is personal, one-on-one training where we help improve underlying cognitive skills,” says David O’Reilly, executive director of the Dublin-area LearningRx franchise.

At LearningRx, each client is given a test focusing on seven skills before beginning training to assess strengths and the areas he or she needs to improve. A personal trainer then helps clients through different exercises targeting the specific skills they want to improve.

The training programs typically last between three and six months, with about five hours of training a week. At the end, each client is given a follow-up test to assess his or her improvement.

According to LearningRx, these follow up tests show improvements in IQ, but that isn’t the company’s main focus.

“We’re really looking at the improvement of each individual skill,” O’Reilly says.

The theory behind LearningRx and similar companies is a little more complex than mere mental exercise.

O’Reilly says that the brain’s ability to adapt and make new connections, known as neuroplasticity, forms the basis for brain training. The goal is to practice a specific cognitive skill in order to make new connections and strengthen pre-existing ones.

While some research has shown support for brain training, other scientists have regarded brain training’s effects with uncertainty.

Last October, the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Stanford Center on Longevity published “A Consensus on the Brain Training Industry from the Scientific Community.” The report, signed by prominent scientists from institutions around the world, argues that research supporting brain training lacks the strength to support the supposed effects.

However, the consensus doesn’t say that changing the brain is impossible, or even that brain training can’t help – just that it is difficult to quantify.

According to the consensus, “Any mentally effortful new experience – such as learning a language, acquiring a motor skill, navigating in a new environment and, yes, playing commercially available computer games – will produce changes.”

The consensus notes that brain training does have the potential to change the brain, but research hasn’t been able to support many of the claims about its effects. Research has shown more support for the benefits of living a healthy and active lifestyle.

Still, the countless testimonials supporting brain training do show something. Brain training can serve as an active choice to focus on improving one’s mental abilities.

Actively seeking improvement can influence a person’s life as well.

“They may see improvement in school, they’ll see a great deal of confidence, behavior issues may disappear,” says O’Reilly.

Cameron Carr is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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