The premise sounds cool: play a video game and improve your memory. That’s the promise of brain training, which has quickly grown into a $1.3 billion industry. But what do we know about how well they work? That was the goal of WebMD’s special report, “Can You Train A Better Brain?” Before consumers spend their money, we wanted to give them in-depth information about how brain training is being used, what the research shows about its value, and what works to maintain or improve brain health. While the largest segment focuses on training to prevent memory loss, it’s being tried in for many other applications: for kids with learning disorders, athletes looking for a mental edge and burn victims looking to ease the pain of their treatments. People can in some cases pay significant amounts of money for the programs, which are largely unregulated at this point. Although the FDA and FTC have the power to regulate the claims these companies can make, neither agency has yet exercised their authority to reign in the industry. As a result, dozens of companies are claiming that they can help ADHD, autism, and even treat substance abuse and memory problems. Experts generally agreed that although brain training has promise, the marketing is ahead of the science. One expert called the companies selling the products “unethical” and likened it to the supplement industry. One family spent $10,000 to try to help their learning disabled daughter, with no results to show for it. LearningRx, the brain training company that offered the training, basically admitted they did nothing to help the child. Brain training for learning disabilities is one of the more complicated areas of research . Parents can be desperate to do anything for their kids, and experts say research is definitely mixed. And like many things, what helps one child may not help another. Brain training may eventually be something that’s part of an overall plan to help kids, but the jury is still out. As for memory, diet and exercise are not nearly as sexy as video games, but they are as important to our brains as they are to our waistline. And as for activities, anything that engages us to use our minds in a different way can be a help. One of the areas where research did show some initial promise was for pain treatment. But research has been hampered because the headgear used for the virtual reality treatment is clunky and difficult to use.
