Neuroeducation and Brain Games

I've previously written about the issues surrounding brain games and it looks like the question of whether the claims that these games make are true or not is being decided by the FTC. This is about just one company, Focus Education, an "edutainment" software producer whose game, Jungle Rangers, was claimed to have been scientifically proven to improve school performance, attention and behavior even going as far as to claim it could alleviate ADHD symptoms. While the company only made $4.5 million in an industry that pulled in over $1.3 billion last year, it may be the canary in the mine.

Looking at the Focus Education website I can't seem to find any specific claims about what the program will do. More interestingly however is the complete lack of scientific investigation into the product mentioned on the page. I tried to track down the publications from their team and of the three researchers, it appears that Dr. Kerns is the only expert publishing on attention and in ADHD populations. However, on her webpage she doesn't have any trials investigating the effect of the brain training game within the last few years.

This case speaks to many of the problems that the Stanford Center on Longevity raised in their open letter about Brain Games.

Here are summarized versions of their 5 claims again:
1. More research needs to be done.
2. Other lifestyle changes (i.e. exercise, sleep, stress, diet, social interaction) are better studied alternatives that show cognitive benefits
3. The claims made should be verified by multiple independent labs and compared against active instead of treatment as usual interventions
4. No study has shown a brain game to prevent Alzheimer's Disease
5. Training is not like a vaccine, it is a continuous process that without work loses its effect

I'll be interested to see if more claims are charged against companies or if companies see this warning shot and are changing their marketing and web presences.