Does Brain Training Work? What Studies (Including Creyos’s Founders’) Found

Brain training does make you better at the games you practice. What the research has struggled to show is that those gains carry over to the things people actually care about, such as remembering names, focusing at work or staying sharp with age. One of the largest early studies, published in Nature in 2010 by the researchers whose tasks later became Creyos, found no transfer to untrained tasks after six weeks. Here is what that study and later reviews found, why a cognitive test is not a training program, and what has better evidence for clearer thinking.

Near transfer vs. far transfer: the question that matters

Researchers separate two kinds of improvement. Near transfer means getting better at the trained game or something very similar to it. Far transfer means the practice improves something different, like everyday memory, school grades or job performance. Almost everyone agrees practice produces near transfer. You learn the rules, find strategies and get faster. The debate is about far transfer, because that is what most brain-training ads imply.

This distinction is also why a higher score in an app is not, by itself, evidence that your brain works better. It may only mean you’ve become good at that app.

The 2010 study of 11,430 people

In 2010, Adrian Owen and colleagues teamed up with the BBC science program Bang Goes The Theory. Viewers aged 18 to 60 signed up to train online for six weeks, for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week. Of the 52,617 people who registered, 11,430 completed the before-and-after tests and enough training to be analyzed.

• One group trained on reasoning, planning and problem-solving tasks.
• A second group trained on short-term memory, attention, visuospatial processing and math tasks, similar to commercial brain-training games.
• A control group spent the same sessions answering obscure general-knowledge questions using any online resource.

Both training groups improved on every task they practiced. But on the untrained benchmark tests, there was no evidence of transfer, “even when those tasks were cognitively closely related,” as the authors put it. They concluded that six weeks of training gave no greater benefit than answering general-knowledge questions.

The study has limits. Participants were self-selected volunteers, many dropped out, and six weeks is not a lifetime. Still, it was large for its time and set the tone for the debate. It also matters for this site’s readers: Owen’s research is where the Creyos tasks came from (see how Cambridge Brain Sciences became Creyos), and the people behind them published one of the best-known findings against broad brain-training claims.

What later reviews concluded

In 2014, two groups of scientists published opposing open letters. More than 70 scientists said brain games did not offer a scientifically grounded way to improve cognition or prevent decline. Months later, 133 scientists and practitioners replied that the literature was full of benefits. To sort it out, psychologist Simons and six co-authors reviewed every peer-reviewed intervention study that leading brain-training companies cited as support, and published the results in 2016 in Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

The review also found that many studies had design or analysis problems that ruled out firm conclusions either way. That is an important nuance: “little evidence” is not the same as proof that brain training can never help anyone. It means the strong, broad claims haven’t been demonstrated.

The FTC and brain-training advertising

Regulators weighed in too. On January 5, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with Lumos Labs, the company behind Lumosity. The FTC alleged the company advertised, without adequate science, that its games would improve performance at work, at school and in everyday life, delay age-related cognitive decline, and reduce cognitive problems linked to conditions such as ADHD, stroke and traumatic brain injury. The company settled the charges without a trial, and the order requires competent and reliable scientific evidence before it makes similar claims in the future.

We mention this because it marks where the line sits. Playing a brain game you enjoy is fine. Claims that a game will treat a condition or prevent dementia need evidence that, so far, hasn’t been shown.

A cognitive test is not a training program

People sometimes confuse the two because they can look alike on a screen. A training app wants you to play often and watch your score climb. A cognitive assessment such as Creyos is built to take a snapshot: it measures memory, attention, reasoning and verbal skills and compares you with people your age. It does not “train” anything, and Willow & Stone doesn’t use it that way.

In fact, practice is something a good test has to account for. Creyos says its scores are compared with people’s first attempts at each task, so modest gains on a retest are expected simply from familiarity. That is why a clinician who repeats a test reads the change cautiously, alongside sleep, mood and stress. Our pages on retesting with Creyos and how accurate Creyos is explain those limits, and the Creyos guide explains what the assessment covers.

What has stronger evidence for thinking clearly

If your goal is sharper everyday thinking, three areas have much better support than app-based training.

Physical activity

An umbrella review prepared for the 2018 U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines found moderate evidence from randomized trials that moderate-to-vigorous activity improves processing speed, memory and executive function. It found strong evidence that a single bout of exercise gives a short-lived boost afterward, and that more activity over time is linked to a lower risk of cognitive impairment. Our guide to the best types of exercise for depression has practical ways to start when energy is low.

Sleep

A meta-analysis of 70 studies found that even short-term sleep loss hurts attention most, with smaller effects on reasoning. In a separate online study of more than 10,000 people who took the Cambridge Brain Sciences tasks (the authors include Owen and a company employee), people who usually slept about four hours a night scored as if they were roughly eight years older. Short-term memory was not affected. See how poor sleep affects memory and focus.

Treating depression and anxiety

Depression is not only a mood problem. A meta-analysis found moderate difficulties with executive function, memory and attention in people with depression, and some of the attention and executive problems persisted even after mood improved. That makes thinking problems worth naming in treatment, not just waiting out. Our page on cognitive symptoms of depression goes further.

These pieces fit together: movement, sleep, nutrition and stress all affect how the brain works, which is the idea behind healing the brain through lifestyle medicine.

If you enjoy brain games anyway

There’s no need to delete an app you like. A reasonable way to think about it:

• Treat brain games as a hobby, like crosswords, not as treatment.
• Don’t use your app scores to diagnose yourself. A drop in scores after a bad week usually reflects sleep, stress or distraction.
• Activities that keep you engaged with other people, or that get you moving, offer more than a game alone.
• If you’re paying for a program because of a specific worry, such as ADHD, memory loss or brain fog, talk with a clinician about the worry itself.

When to talk to a clinician about your thinking

Worth bringing up: forgetfulness or poor focus that is new, getting worse, or affecting work, school or relationships; brain fog alongside low mood, anxiety or poor sleep; or a feeling that a medication has dulled your thinking (don’t stop or change a medication on your own; talk with your prescriber). A good evaluation looks at sleep, mood, medications, health conditions and labs, and it may include a cognitive assessment as one piece of information.

At Willow & Stone, an evaluation starts with a conversation. Learn more about the integrative psychiatric evaluation, or request a consultation. Whether a Creyos assessment fits your situation, and what it costs, is something to ask our team when you book.

Common Questions

Sources & Further Reading

• Owen AM, et al. Putting brain training to the test. Nature, 2010 (PMC)
• Simons DJ, et al. Do “brain-training” programs work? Psychol Sci Public Interest, 2016 (PubMed)
• Federal Trade Commission — Lumosity settlement press release, Jan 5, 2016
• Erickson KI, et al. Physical activity, cognition, and brain outcomes. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 2019 (PMC)
• Lim J, Dinges DF. Short-term sleep deprivation and cognition: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull, 2010 (PMC)
• Wild CJ, et al. Self-reported sleep duration and cognitive abilities. Sleep, 2018 (PMC)
• Rock PL, et al. Cognitive impairment in depression: a meta-analysis. Psychol Med, 2014 (PubMed)
• Creyos — Understanding the Creyos Health Normative Database (PDF)

This article is general education, not a diagnosis or advice for your situation. Creyos results support, and never replace, a clinical evaluation; only a clinician who has evaluated you can diagnose a condition or recommend treatment. Do not start, stop, or change a medication without talking to the clinician who prescribes it.