Lumosity "brain training" games have no beneficial effects on cognition, according to a paper just published in the Journal of Neuroscience. According to the authors, led by UPenn psychologist Joseph W. Kable, Lumosity "appears to have no benefits in healthy young adults above those of standard video games." In the study, 128 young adults were randomly assigned to either 10 weeks of Lumosity training, or a control condition: 10 weeks of playing normal, non-brain-based online videogames. The Lumosity group got much better at the Lumosity tasks over time, as shown by the Lumosity Performance Index:
However, neither Lumosity nor the control had any effect on the key outcome: executive function. Executive function refers to cognitive processes that regulate behaviour and help make reasoned (as opposed to impulsive) decisions. Kable et al. measured executive function with two decision-making tasks called delay discounting and risk sensitivity. Neither group improved on either task:
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