French researcher claims Brain Age is faulty

The success of Nintendo’s Brain Age series can be attributed to both scientific officials touting its capabilities and positive reviews from the gaming press. There are some, however, that are still not sold on its potential.

The University of Rennes, Brittany, contend people who play Brain Age do not show a jump in memory. In fact, based on their data, it leads to memory becoming worse.

To arrive at these results, the researchers split a group of 10-year-old children into four groups. The first two groups engaged in a seven-week Nintendo DS memory course, while the third group engaged in puzzles using pencil-and-paper. The final group, the control group, went to school as usual. All of the subjects groups took logic tests at the beginning and end of the experiment.

As it turned out, the DS group only showed a slight increase in math in comparison and a significant decrease in memorization. Not the best results for a game that is supposed to promote sharp memorization and intelligence improvements.

In speaking with Times-Online, Alain Lieury, the professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Rennes, said:

“The Nintendo DS is a technological jewel. As a game it is fine, but it is charlatanism to claim that it is a scientific test… There were few positive effects and they were weak. Dr Kawashima is one of a long list of dream merchants.”

As someone who owns Big Brain Academy, I seriously disagree with his results.

Read [Times-Online] Via [Kotaku]