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Brain training is effective. Did you doubt it?

We are convinced that brain training as a method works; especially since our own statistical analyses confirm it: exercising your brain using a varied and regular program helps to maintain, even improve your cognitive capacities. However, we understand that some of our users still have doubts, especially given the contradictory information that can be found here and there.

So, it is very interesting when researchers (independent of HAPPYneuron) carry out studies on the subject. In this case, it’s an experiment, published in January in the scientific journal “Journal of the American Geriatrics Society”, carried out by G. Rebok, a doctoral student specializing in the ageing process.

Researchers recruited 2,832 participants aged 74 years on average, whose cognitive decline resulted from normal ageing of the brain, and not from an illness. They were divided into three separate groups, and had to complete 10 to 12 sessions lasting 60 to 75 minutes each, spread over several weeks. Their performance was then tested immediately after the training period, then after a year, two years, three years, five years, and finally after ten years. The first group carried out computerized exercises to stimulate processing speed*. The two other groups carried out exercises on paper, one to exercise the memory and the other to train reasoning.

After analyzing the results, the scientists found that the performance gains following the speed and reasoning exercises continued after ten years. However, the memory, which improved markedly after the training, gradually fell after five years, until it reached the same level as that observed in the control group. Although the standard tests didn’t measure it, the participants reported that they felt more able to do daily tasks such as cooking, managing their finances or following their medical treatment.

The brain training program helped these people to increase their cognitive functions and to improve their performance for ten years following the training. Even if the researchers don't know yet if this can help people to remain independent for longer, they nonetheless hope that brain training can make their careers’ work easier.

During the ten years of tests, each cognitive capacity trained fell, but the decline was less significant for speed and reasoning. We might therefore deduce that regular training over these years would probably have maintained the performance gain, in particular the improvement in memory, which fell more quickly than the two other functions.

*NB: processing speed is a cognitive function that refers to the rate with which the cognitive processes are carried out. On HAPPYneuron, the games Catch the Ladybug! and Secret Files strongly stimulate the processing speed. This is also the case with all the games where you have to complete the exercise within a given period of time.
Source: Rebok G. et al. (2014). Ten-Year Effects of the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly Cognitive Training Trial on Cognition and Everyday Functioning in Older Adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2014, 6(1): 16-24.

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