91Èȱ¬

The results of a ground-breaking scientific study into brain training, devised and launched by the 91Èȱ¬, will today be published in Nature, one of the world's most influential scientific journals.

The astonishing results of the brain training experiment (launched on 91Èȱ¬ One popular science show Bang Goes The Theory last year) showed that brain training games don't improve your "brain power" (i.e. reasoning, memory, planning or visual spatial abilities).

The experiment showed that six weeks of practising a specific set of brain training games made participants better at playing those specific games but didn't noticeably improve their "brain power" in a way that could be transferred to other everyday thinking tasks – 11,430 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 60 participated, making this the largest ever scientific study of computer-based brain training.

The full results can be found at bbc.co.uk/labuk.

Participants were asked to train for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week for a minimum of six weeks, and all participants took benchmarking tests at the beginning and end of the six week period.

The test was developed by scientists from the Medical Research Council and the Alzheimer's Society, in collaboration with the 91Èȱ¬'s innovative mass participation experiments website, Lab UK.

The results will be broadcast in a one-hour special Can You Train Your Brain? A Bang Goes The Theory Special (Wednesday 21 April at 9pm on 91Èȱ¬ One).

Dr Adrian Owen, assistant director of Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, says: "The results are clear. Statistically, there are no significant differences between the improvements seen in participants who played our brain training games, and those who just went on the internet for the same length of time."

Dallas Campbell, Bang Goes The Theory presenter, says: "Millions of us play brain training games on the assumption that expensive games make us better at everyday thinking tasks but, until now, there's been no evidence to prove that these games work at all in healthy adults.

"In true Bang Goes The Theory experimental fashion, we set out to gather real, scientific evidence that would answer the question of whether these games are worth our money. And now we have our answer."

Details of the results, and the response from the makers of the UK's best-selling brain training game, will be shown in Can You Train Your Brain? A Bang Goes The Theory Special.

To find out more about the popular science series, Bang Goes The Theory (Mondays at 7.30pm on 91Èȱ¬ One), viewers can visit bbc.co.uk/bang.

The brain training experiment tested the effectiveness of a carefully-designed set of computer-based brain training games, representative of the types of games that are currently commercially available.

In 2009, an independent report showed that there was a significant lack of scientific evidence to support the effectiveness of brain training games. This experiment was the first large-scale study to attempt to deliver evidence that evaluated the effectiveness of brain training games.

Clive Ballard, director of Alzheimer's Society, says: "This evidence could change the way we look at brain training games and shows staying active by taking a walk for example is a better use of our time. The next question is whether brain training can help maintain your brain as you get older."

The brain training experiment is the first in a series of ground-breaking scientific experiments devised and launched by Lab UK, a unique 91Èȱ¬ project that brings leading scientists together with the 91Èȱ¬ audience to carry out groundbreaking research. To date, nearly half a million people have taken part in Lab UK experiments.

To read the full results, try the brain training games, or take part in other scientific experiments, visit bbc.co.uk/labuk.

Notes to Editors

The data from 11,430 participants between the age of 18 and 60 were used in the analysis by Dr Adrian Owen et al. The study is ongoing for trainers aged 60 and over and, for this reason, no conclusions have yet been published about this group of participants.

The number of participants in the complete data set, including 60 and over, was 13,000. Participants aged 60 and over are being asked to train for 12 months.

For more details about 60 and over training, go to bbc.co.uk/labuk.

The Experiment

All participants were randomly assigned to one of three brain training groups.

In the first experimental group (the reasoning group), participants played games that emphasised their reasoning, planning and problem solving skills. The second group (the non-reasoning group) played games that trained short-term memory, attention, visuospatial processing and mathematical abilities, while the control group were given web-browsing tasks that didn't test any specific cognitive skills.

At the beginning of the trial, all three groups of participants carried out benchmarking tests different from the brain training games. These tests measured reasoning, verbal short-term memory, spatial working memory and paired associates learning.

The tests were repeated by all participants at the end of six weeks, to measure whether the different types of brain training tasks (or, in the case of the control group, browsing the web) had any transfer effect to other cognitive skills.

The results showed no statistically meaningful difference in the before and after benchmarking tests of the three different groups.

Lab UK

The brain training trial was powered by 91Èȱ¬ Lab UK, a website where members of the public can take part in world class science experiments online.

Science of the scale and ambition delivered by 91Èȱ¬ Lab UK would be impossible without the active participation of the British public via the web. Since its launch in September 2009, 91Èȱ¬ Lab UK has attracted almost half a million participants.

There are currently three experiments ongoing: Brain Test Britain (for 60 and over); the Big Personality Test; and the Web Behaviour Test.

For more information go to bbc.co.uk/labuk.

VAA