Can You Really 'Train' Your Brain?

Brain training games claim to improve your memory, attention, and reasoning skills. Some even say they help prevent the onset of dementia. Problem is, they don’t really work.

Hosted by: Michael Aranda
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[EugeneKhutoryansky]

This demonstrates why we need more than just a single study before coming to a conclusion. One of my complaints about some videos on other YouTube science channels is that they often announce the findings of a new recent study as if it is a major revelation. Actual science requires many different studies over a long period of time before we start to develop confidence in the results. And even then, the conclusions are never final.

[denchua]

During high school, I've observed that after going through intense math training during the vacation season (5 hours of problem solving a day for 30 days), my memory and cognitive skills were drastically better. It came to a point where I never had to take down notes in class but I could still remember everything the teacher wrote down. When I entered college, however, I didn't use math a lot so my cognitive skills became dull but my brain did get better at other things.

[boy]

...but you can train your dragon right? Right?!

[Chet]

"This episode of SciShow is sponsored by our friends at Lumosity"

[nehatheturtle]

i thought i was being all sly secretly playing lumosity to be a smarter person. time to delete the app

[eahere]

That placebo effect is really interesting. They believed they were going to be smarter, so they got smarter.
Says a lot about what a positive attitude can accomplish.

[ze_rubenator]

Learn how to play a musical instument, it's the best way to train the brain and keeping it healthy. Seriously, doing this has major benefits in all aspects of life.

[mbanana]

you can "train" your brain, it's called LEARNING if you want to improve your brain learn a skill, learn a langugage, learn a instrument, study mathematics, study philosophy, learn art, learn music, etc..

[revilos]

But is getting more education not also a form of brain training?

[K_i_t_t_y]

Ahhh. Drat. To be honest this makes me really sad. I was hoping to find easy ways to help my parents' minds stay healthier as they age, and I feel like I'm back to square 1.

[Aaron.Reichert]

Brain training games might not but science YouTube channels still work right?
/wink wink

[keithc]

For a long time, I thought there were ways to make myself smarter and so I tried them all. One of them was brain games which I could find online for free.. but after about two years of practising, I noticed I was still as bad an employee as I was a student. That's when I concluded I was perhaps too dumb to realise I was too dumb to do anything about elevating my intellect.

[DamianReloaded]

You train your brain on a specific thing you want it to learn. Keeping and re-reading a diary (or video blogging) can help re-memorizing one's memories if one happens to forget them (ie: the neural net that held them died).

[HiKimiko]

I was always taught: practice makes Permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect permanent. - Basically if you learn and practice something wrong, you will always do it wrong. Best lesson I've learned in high school

[logictruth]

as someone who really DID train his mind effectively this conclusion is right on the money. It's literally the only way to insure improved performance. Educate yourself in the most broad fashion and do it a lot. Also keep a little bit of focus on Math and Philosophy. For these two aren't things to learn but things to practice which is why they help a lot more. Eat well, sleep well, live well and keep your stress level low. Good Luck!

[ezkefen]

Do a video about that weird blue thing in the sky over LA on saturday

[maskedmarksman]

I had a stroke at 21 and see a psychologist that specializes in high functioning stroke victims and she has me play lumosity (and other games). While she isn't concerned with my brain in 60 years, she does think that there is a benefit to me playing those games. Now, I know that this isn't exactly a common circumstance or what the games were intended for, but these games are very similar to the tasks that are used to assist stroke victims so that is good I guess. Plus, hopefully these games could help us learn more about our brains in the future.

[vatra]

If the adult brain wasn't flexible I'd essentially be a high functioning vegetable. A car wreck split my skull and scrambled my brain. I had to relearn how to learn and had to figure out ways to get through mental pathways that were either broken or heavily mired in debris. If it was broken I hit a brick wall trying to think of something, I would know it existed, and that it correlated to other things in my brain but I could not get to it unless I figured out a way to get someone else to say it, then I'd have to concentrate to make sure the new pathway stayed. For example the concept of February, I could not get to it no matter how I tried, I finally got my father to say it by me prompting him with "after January". If the pathway was mired with debris it became like trying to walk while up to your neck in tar, sure it was possible and I could feel I was making slow progress, but it was usually easier and faster to just go around, in other words find a different correlation to the thing I was attempting to think of. For example eggs for breakfast, in trying to think of it as food I got mired down so I went around by instead thinking where baby chickens come from that can be turned in to breakfast. Both examples were real common place things I had to reestablish in my brain. Oh, and there are random gaps in my memories now too, like information I have zero recollection of ever happening, even after someone proves it did happen. So yeah thank God for adult brain flexibility.

[ZeoViolet]

I trained myself long ago to remember specific strings of numbers and to automatically assess change in my head at a glance. They became invaluable later in my current job because those skills translated into my current workplace, and I'm known for them. It's my specific niche, because while actively being willing to commit that sort of stuff to memory is a huge bother to many, it isn't to me because the payoff is worth it...I'm not stopping constantly during work to look up that information; it's already memorized and thus, at my fingertips.

Doesn't translate everywhere, though...I'm terrible at names and verbal directions (visually, I have no problems; I can follow a map with ease and remember directions via visual landmarks with no problems).

[Sydneyx]

I believe that constant learning and continuous challenge is key to improving and maintaining a healthy brain. Learn to read music learn to play An instrument learn a new language read scientific papers learn to do ready said papers critically. Read a dictionary anything that you may find difficult and when it becomes easier switch to something els that you find hard to do. Mentally tiring and exhausting but it works