Is playing Nintendo brain age games any better at improving your brain than say a pencil and paper? A recent article in the Times Online website claims that the pencil and paper is just as good. They base this claim on results of a study done on a group of ten year olds.
A 10p pencil is just as good as a £100 Nintendo at stimulating the memory, according to a study that dismisses the DS Lite’s claims to boost the brain.
Professor Lieury said that helping one’s children with their homework, reading, playing Scrabble or Su Doku or watching documentaries instead of soap operas matched or beat the console.
Alvaro Fernandez over at Sharp Brains wrote a great response to this Times article. He points out the many inaccuracies found in the article. He also pointed out that our brains need novelty, variety and challenge in order to stay fit. These things depend greatly of course on who we are and what we do. A crossword puzzle might be something new and challenging for one person, but not for another. The same can be said about a brain game like the ds Nintendo brain age game. So when it comes to brain training, the key is variety, novelty and level of mental challenge it provides you specifically. This is the same whether the tool being used is a pencil, paper or a brain game.
So, will playing Nintendo Brain Age Games do you any good? Well, I guess that depends on who you are and what you do. 
Resources:
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!
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I do it for fun
and i love it!
hey really I enjoyed a lot.and this game is really one of the amazing game
I’ve had Brain Age on my DS Lite for 3-4 months and after playing it daily I have noticed ‘personal improvements’. Immediately after playing the game I am now able to focus my attention on work for longer periods. I’m assuming it’s because my brain has been stimulated and helps me focus more.
Why do you bother if it helps you brain really or not….As long as you do not involve yourself too much, any game that makes you think even a bit wil surely help your brain
Hi, I really think that it does you know especially the mental arithmatic. Because it’s fun I’ve picked up stuff that I never noticed in school like the significance between two numbers and quickly adding them up.
I think brain age is a great game but in terms of longevity. It really lacks, once you have unlocked all the exercises it kinda gets a bit boring. I wonder how they can make it more interesting for longer? That’s a brain teaser in itself!
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This Games is really a mind based games.I played this type of games many times but this is really one of the unique game which I like.
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I think The Times have missed the point. You can use a pencil to do an almost infinite number of puzzles, but these brain training games allow you to carry hundreds of puzzles around in your pocket.
As for boosting your brain, as long as Nintendo keep producing more brain games, then you should always find something that stimulates your brain.
There are so many studies which proves that playing video games doesn’t make your mind agile other than stress you mentally and worn out physically. i agree that the study has proved its point.
I started using brain age about 8 months ago, i stopped for a while and noticed a big didderence. when i was using it, i could see a phine # for a instant and think about it a week later and the # appeared in my brain , it is awsom.
It may well be true that a 10p pencil can work your brain just as much as Brain Training, but lets face it, most 10 year olds are either sat watching mindless tv or playing violent games, so if you can get them to sit down with their DS and do some mental challenges its a plus!
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Even if don’t works, I will continue to use it!
Hello.
I think its rediculous for them to say that the brain training game has no effect just because a pencil is cheaper. It is obviously true the pencil is cheaper but if you own a ds you may as well buy the game as it combines a great game AND does the same as the pencil and a wordsearch book etc.
Dan.
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I totally believe that Brain Age is good for the brain. Sure pencil and paper is good.. but as long as you force yourself to do calculations all the time, you can’t beat the ease and availability of it.
Personally, I’ve seen some good results, and my 8 year old son has improved immensely. No doubt the math calcs help him.
Beyond that.. it’s just plain fun to compete with others on it. Good stuff!
DS
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I am 65 and have been doing Brain Age since June of 2007, and Brain Age 2 since August of 2007. I have been doing both of them every day since then, but as of this Summer, I have only been doing 3 training programs per day, plus the brain age test. I have only missed 2 or 3 days per year. What is most wonderful about it is that it keeps track of your 3 highest scores, so there is always something to “beat”. My brain age is 20 almost every day. I feel that it has improved my mental alertness considerably. How many people can do 100 math calculation on ‘hard’ in 67 seconds? That’s my all time high score. Remembering 29 out of 30 words after two minutes, and being able to remember where 25 different numbers are on a grid, I think it’s amazing! I really enjoy it, and it takes less than an hour to do both of them, and I usually do them in the evening while watching TV! I recommend it to all who like to put themselves to the test!
Wow, that’s really impressive Ingrid! Thanks so much for posting your comment!
[...] the comment Ingrid left on my blog post titled, “Does Playing Nintendo Brain Age Really Do You Any Good?” I am 65 and have been doing Brain Age since June of 2007, and Brain Age 2 since August of 2007. [...]
If you enjoy playing it, and you get something out of it then that’s good. We play the brain trainer just for fun
Nintendo brain training games are great fun, im a Sony PSP Go fan personally due to better ameplay as well as better graphics.
What really annoys me is being beaten by my Mum. It puts me right off playing Brain Trainer games.