2 December, 2013 4:41PM AWST

Brain training games: effective or just the latest fad?

Whether brain training techniques work is a question Curtin University researchers want to answer.

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Practise does make perfect, says research leader Professor Frank Baughman from the School of Psychology,

Juggling, standing on one leg, or solving crossword puzzles; "if you practice long enough, you'll see improvement in your performance, no matter what it is.

"The real issue with brain training games, and this is where we differ most strongly with the previous attempts to explore this idea, is that there's no real conceptualisation about what those are doing.

"What is changing? Are the changes that you see generalising to other domains? Are you thinking more clearly or thinking more efficiently?

"If so, what property of the brain does that relate to?"

The research team is looking for volunteers from around Australia who are happy to play games several times a week, for six weeks.

The only other study of this type found very little evidence for generalisation, notes Professor Baughman.

The notion of 'use it or lose it' is accurate to a degree, states Professor Baughman.

"As we get the older the brain goes through a lot of changes," he explains. "At the moment of conception, there is an explosion of connectivity."

From the first year of life, that connective activity decreases and areas of the brain begin to form into functionally diverse structures, for language, problem solving or reasoning.

Plasticity, the ability of the brain to learn, is the real issue, according to Professor Baughman.

"As we change and our brain changes as a response to our environment and what we do with it, we're able to start using this information from neurosciences to select information which might be better for us."

Studies of the effects of brain trauma such as haemorrhaging show that people can recover lost brain function.

"Either the brain is learning to rewire - to reconnect - or the brain is giving over some of the functionality in areas that survive."

Brain training games are "essentially tasks that are designed to be challenging" says Professor Baughman and programs such as the ABC's How to Train my Brain are both help and hindrance.

On the one hand, they raise public awareness.

On the other, the science story is often laundered, wrung out and stretched, only to be reshaped in the mills of urban myth.

Teachers, illustrates Professor Baughman, might talk about children using only a portion of their brain or that a particular child might be stronger on verbal or spatial skills.

"Those are approximations of research that has come out of the neurosciences."

He adds, "I think the more conversation and dialogue about these subjects the better."

In older adults, various factors might be influencing changes, says Professor Baughman.

One such factor is education. "The better educated a person is, the slower the rate of decline."

However, he cautions, the relationship isn't causal.

The brain is more plastic, even in adult life, than once thought, says Professor Baughman.

As the population ages, people are increasingly turning to crosswords and puzzles, learning new languages, or picking up a musical instrument as they strive to improve cognitive function.

The key to improvement is enjoyment, stresses Frank Baughman.

"If you do something that you really enjoy, and if you do something that you enjoy regularly, you'll see benefits of that practice.

"We know it happens, the question is why? What does the brain do to deliver those differences?"